Runespoor Eggs
by Kelenariel Khelekkir
Summary: Severus Snape’s pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?
1. Of Feuds And Guitars

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

Summary: Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?  
  
Chapter 1: Of Feuds And Guitars   
There were a lot of things that could piss of Severus Snape. Non- Slytherins, inept potion-makers, Harry Potter, the fact that he was turned down for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job every year, Harry Potter, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's winning streak, Harry Potter, grammatically incorrect Potions essays, and Harry Potter. But nothing, nothing, infuriated him more than the eccentric Ravenclaw girls who constantly gave him hell, Kelenariel Khelekkir and Jane Dumont.  
Kel and Jane, on the other hand, said he was their favorite teacher. Not because he was nice to them, or because they thought he had a good teaching style, but because they could piss him off so easily. There was nothing nearly as funny as Severus Snape's reaction to a prank or a joke.  
Kel and Jane were different from the other students in a variety of ways. For one thing, they were not British, but American, and had moved to London at a young age, though they retained their American accents. Before long after meeting, they were best friends. They shared similar interests, such as rock music and the punk and gothic styles of clothing. They also shared similar beliefs. For instance, they both believed the Zen philosophy that mental and physical discipline could lead to an understanding of the nature of existence. Kel took this seriously and meditated as often as she could. Jane didn't. On those rare occasions when she did meditate, it was only because Kel had nagged her to do so for days. The Slytherin students viewed them from a distance, and labeled them as "weirdo-mudbloods," not that this bothered the pair. The rest of the students thought they were good people, but a little strange.  
But the strangest thing about Kelenariel and Jane was not something that could be seen or heard or touched, but something that was merely sensed, and even then it was sensed only by few. The girls never showed any sign of knowing about this difference in themselves, but the few people who sensed it knew that they knew it was there. The only physical sign of this difference in Kel and Jane was that Kel's spells always had a bit of a silvery quality to them, and Jane's always had a reddish tinge, no matter what color they were supposed to be.  
There were several reasons why Professor Snape despised them so much. For one thing, they were constantly making jokes whenever he was around, and he had a shrewd suspicion that they were made about him. For another thing, they especially liked to tick him off. One of their favorite activities was loitering by the entrance of the Great Hall before breakfast just to annoy him. They'd mention one of their inside jokes, then crack up and try not to laugh too loudly. Snape had a feeling many were about him.  
And the most annoying thing about them was that they were adept at Potions. He was seldom able to catch them making a mistake. When he did catch a mistake, though, he made sure to point it out to the class and humiliate them. The problem was, they didn't act humiliated. Jane would shrug and say, "Okay sir, I'll try not to do it again," and Kel would just act the way she did in all classes: emotionless. The only times he ever saw her show emotion was when she was out of class, cracking a joke about him.  
  
One morning in January of 1996, Professor Snape was walking to the Great Hall for breakfast when, as had happened every other day for the past two weeks, he caught sight of Kel and Jane standing by the doors of the Hall, talking. They actually looked like halfway normal girls, from behind, anyway. Snape knew better. Jane had a slender build, a pointed, prominent chin, and dead straight, shoulder-length, glossy black hair with bangs parted in the center, her skin shockingly pale in comparison. Her ice-blue eyes, which held a mischievous glint, were accented by heavy eyeliner, the ends pointed in an Egyptian style. Her lips were colored black. Kelenariel looked slightly more normal than Jane, though not much more. She had wavy, dark-brown hair that was pulled into a half ponytail, so dark that it looked almost black, light skin, and brown eyes that changed color according to the light. In his dark dungeon, they were much the same color as her hair, and in the exceptionally bright glare of the sun, they were illuminated to gold, hazel, dark orange, or sometimes even a deep red. In the normal light, they were light brown with a hint of purple. These eyes too were accented with heavy eyeliner (but not so heavy as Jane's) so that it drew the gaze to her multi-colored eyes. The most extraordinary thing about Kelenariel Khelekkir's appearance, though, was not her eyes, or her hair, or her skin, or anything mentioned in this paragraph up till now, but the scar that ran from near her right eye, to her nose, to the corner of her mouth, all the way down to her upper neck. Sometimes it harder to notice, and sometimes it jumped out at the viewer, but it always there. As usual, when the pair caught sight him, one muttered something to the other, and they nearly fell over with suppressed laughter.  
Snape had had enough. He swept over. When they realized he was going for them, they tried their best to shut up and give him simper smiles. Or at least Jane did. Kel put on her mask of apathy.  
"Yes sir? Is there something wrong, sir? Something we can do, sir?" Jane asked mockingly.  
Snape glared at them down his large nose. "The next time I catch you talking here, Dumont, Khelekkir, you will have detention. Both of you. Go."  
Jane smiled and skipped over to her seat at the Ravenclaw table, Kel following more sedately. Judging from the laughter of the other Ravenclaws, Jane was telling them what had happened.  
Snape scowled more deeply and trudged over to the staff table.   
The next morning, Professor Snape walked to the Great Hall again, wondering whether those troublesome little weirdos had obeyed his command.  
He smirked, knowing that they probably hadn't, and walked on. However, when he rounded the corner, the smirk melted away.  
As he had guessed, there was Kelenariel Khelekkir in her usual spot by the door. There was more than that though. She was strumming a—he couldn't believe it—guitar. A muggle guitar. And singing along.  
As soon as she ended the song, the crowd of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and other Ravenclaws gathered around her and started spewing out requests for songs. She cast her gaze around the room, looking for inspiration. When her eyes alighted on him, a truly evil grin crossed her face. She resituated her fingers on the—fetts? Frets? Ferrets? Ferrets?! What was he thinking?—and started to play.  
He nearly fell over when he heard the words.

"Now I wanna sniff some glue!  
Now I wanna have somethin' to do.  
All the kids wanna sniff some glue!  
All the kids want somethin' to do."  
  
As he stormed over, his eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw the hat full of galleons—which Jane was rapidly adding to—at Kel's feet.  
When the crowd saw Snape, they quickly dispersed until only Kel, Jane, and himself were present.  
"Detention. Both of you. Report to my office at after dinner tonight," he said with quiet smugness, his eyes glittering.  
"Oh I don't think so," Jane replied brightly.  
"Excuse me?"  
"As I recall, you said that if you caught us talking here again, we'd have detention," Kel said cheerfully, which surprised him because she was actually showing emotion. "I wasn't talking. I was playing a guitar and singing. So I don't think we'll be reporting to your office after dinner."  
"She's right, you know," Professor Flitwick said, walking up to them. "So let them off this time. After all, they're in my house." Apparently, he hadn't heard the lyrics to the song she had been playing.  
Snape glared down at him, to angry at being thwarted to speak. Without a word, he stalked off to eat breakfast in his office, his robe flapping behind him.  
The last thing he heard as he shut the door was the echo of Kel's clear voice singing, "Lucy in the sky with diamonds!"

That night, Kelenariel Khelekkir lay awake in her four-poster bed, staring up at the ceiling. It wasn't unusual to find her like this after lights out. She always had trouble sleeping at first, but then she nodded off. Tonight, though, she had been lying awake for three hours.  
Kel turned over and tried to go to sleep, but she couldn't. The best way to solve a problem is to find out why it's there in the first place, she thought.  
Very well. What was the problem? She couldn't sleep, that was the problem. Why couldn't she sleep? Sugar? No. Caffeine? No. Unfinished assignments? No, she had finished all her homework. Was it an emotion keeping her awake? Perhaps guilt over the incident in the Great Hall? No. Her guitar playing hadn't hurt anyone, only annoyed a few, such as Snape and the Slytherins. Umbridge would've been annoyed too, and attempted to do the same as Snape, had she been there to witness it. Thankfully, she wasn't. Why should she feel any guilt about Snape? She wasn't sure who had started their feud, but that didn't matter. He deserved everything they gave him.  
She remembered the day she and Jane had earned the Potions Master's enmity. It had been the second class of their first year in 1990. Professor Snape had been bullying John Dewaro, who had tripped over his own feet and accidentally knocked some of his lionfish spleen into his potion, causing it to explode. Snape, who had been especially grumpy that day, had started shouting at John, calling him seven kinds of idiot in one sentence. Jane, who was particularly angry at Snape because he had vanished her potion halfway through the lesson because of an easily rectifiable mistake, making her have to start over, and Kel, who hated bullying, unfairness, and, most especially, corrupted and/or biased authority figures, had stood up to defend John. Their argument had been reasonable, until Jane lost her temper and shouted, "Just because you're PMS-ing doesn't mean you should take it out on him!"  
As a result of that comment, they had lost 50 points from Ravenclaw and gained a week's worth of detention each, but everyone said that it was worth seeing the look on Snape's face after Jane's explosion.  
Ever since then, the Potions Master and the Ravenclaw eccentrics waged a constant, quiet war that no one heard about except the Ravenclaw students and perhaps Dumbledore. No one else really cared much about it.  
Kel smiled at the memory. No, it isn't guilt that's keeping me awake, she told herself. Perhaps it isn't me. Maybe it's something in the castle.  
Come to think of it, there definitely was something different in the castle tonight. It was like a hum... only she didn't hear it with her ears. No she heard it in her mind.  
It wasn't surprising to her to here something in her mind. She had experienced it, considering how much she meditated. Owing to the out of body experiences she sometimes had during the aforementioned activity, she was quite used to it.  
She had never experienced a sensation like this though. It wasn't bad...but it wasn't good either.  
She looked through the gap in her curtains at Jane. Her friend was asleep, oblivious to the hum that kept Kel awake, her hair fanned out on the pillow. On her bedpost was her crow, Cadaver.  
Cadaver was a pathetic example of a crow. With thin, ragged feathers that were constantly falling out and a body that was so dull that it looked almost grey, his name fit him very well. He did indeed look dead. But despite this, he was as strong and noble as any owl. Or any hippogriff, for that matter. Well, maybe not as strong, but certainly as noble. The last person that had bothered Jane had ended up with a face full of scratches from Cadaver's talons.  
Professor Trelawney or someone's probably doing some weird spell experiment, she told herself. Ignore it and go to sleep.  
But she couldn't go to sleep. The sense of something weird lurking about the castle kept her awake. Finally, she decided that she couldn't take it anymore and got dressed to take a walk. As she left the Ravenclaw common room, she was heard to have muttered, "Spell experiment my ass."  
As she wandered through the halls, the shadows seemed to move. A couple of times she heard the whoosh of Peeves zooming around empty classrooms. She half expected the suits of armor to jump out at her.  
She checked her watch. 2:48 AM.  
This is crazy, the sensible part of her (which was the part of her that was usually in control) screamed. Wandering around the castle at nearly three in the morning, all because you can't sleep. If Filch or Umbridge catches you, you're dead. But if Snape catches you, you're worse than dead! He probably wants revenge. Better to fall asleep in class tomorrow than to get caught by him.

And, as if summoned by her thoughts, a wand light bloomed out of nowhere, revealing the one and only Professor Severus Snape, looking down his big ugly nose at her.

(Editor's note: You shouldn't touch my cheese monkeys. They bite.)  
  
(A/N: You may be wondering "where's this dragon the summary was talking about?" Well, here's our answer: she'll be in the next chapter. I would've put her in this chapter, but my editor, kichikitsune, said I should end it here, at this cliffhanger. Also, you'll find out more about that weird thing about Kelenariel and Jane mentioned in Paragraph 4 in later chapters. Yes, I hate the phrase 'in later chapters' too. It just didn't fit here. I'll try and update as soon as I can. Some things to point out: Kel and Jane are in the year above Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If they sound remotely Mary Sue-ish, I'm sorry. They aren't. Umbridge is currently residing in the school. Dumbledore has not left yet. No, there will NOT be any slash between Snape and Kel or Snape and Jane, especially since Kel is based upon myself and Jane's personality is based on kichikitsune. As good as he looks in the movie, I do NOT want a relationship with Severus Snape. NO WAY. Not if my life depended on it. He has too many emotional issues, you know?)


	2. Detention

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.  
  
Summary: Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?  
  
Thank you, reviewers! I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read and critique my story!  
  
Fluegelle: Thanks for reviewing, and yes, Kel and Jane are afraid of some stuff. I'm going to mention exactly what their fears are later in the story though, so I can't tell you now.  
  
Scarecrow and Gnome: Thank you for the review and the warning, both are appreciated. I'll try to make Kel and Jane as non Mary-Sue-ish as possible. This chapter exposes some of their faults.  
  
Stephie: No, I am not joking. If he happened to be twenty years younger and a lot less vindictive, I'd have to say that Severus Snape was hot. In the movie, anyway. Ha. Darla. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Chapter 2: Detention  
  
A sudden wave of inexplicable fear broke out over Kel as the Potions Master appeared in front of her. Oh no. I'm worse than dead now, she thought.  
"So....you thought it a good idea to take an early morning stroll, did you?" he asked in his silky yay-I-can-give-detention-to-a-student voice. When she didn't answer, he said. "Detention, seven o'clock tomorrow evening, Khelekkir. Go back to your dormitory."  
"Yessir," she replied cheerfully, drawing a scowl out of him. Before he could do anything else, she turned on her heel and headed back to the Ravenclaw common room.  
Great. You got caught. Now you have detention with Snape. Why didn't you listen and go back when I told you to? The sensible part of her grumbled.  
Because I'm stupid, she answered it silently, and smacked herself on the forehead to prove it.  
Jane was waiting for her when she got back to the dormitory. "Where were you?" she asked grumpily. "And why didn't you wake me up?" Cadaver squawked at her to further this point.  
"Shush, you'll wake everyone up," Kel told the bird. To Jane she said, "I couldn't sleep. I decided to take a walk. And I didn't want to wake you up," she added in a lowered voice, so she wouldn't wake her sleeping dorm-mates up.  
"You couldn't sleep," Jane repeated, looking puzzled.  
"Yeah," Kel replied. "What so weird about that?" She didn't want to mention the hum in case she was imagining it.  
"You couldn't sleep. And I had a weird dream that woke me up. It was weird....I could hear this hum....only I didn't hear it with my ears. I heard it with my mind."  
Kel stared at her disbelievingly. "I thought I imagined it," she told Jane. "It kept me awake.  
Jane shrugged. "Well I guess we're both imagining it," she said. "Either that, or it's real."  
"I'd rather the hum be real than what just happened on my walk," Kel replied. She then relayed what had happened with Snape to Jane.  
"A detention? With SNAPE?" Jane cried.  
"Shush it, you'll wake everyone up!" Kel whispered. "And yes, I have a detention with Snape. At seven o'clock tomorrow evening."  
Jane yawned. "Nice knowing you," she told Kel.  
Kel rolled her eyes. "Oh please. It won't be that bad. I'll probably just have to do manual labor, like scraping dried potions off desks or cleaning cauldrons."  
"That's Kelenariel Khelekkir for you," Jane said disgustedly, pulling her curtains closed. "Always an optimist. Goodnight."  
"But it's morning already," Kel protested.  
In response, a hand appeared from behind Jane's curtain, middle finger up.  
  
In the morning, it became imminent that they were not the only ones affected by the hum. Their dorm mates were unusually snappish that morning, though when asked whether they had noticed anything unusual, they shook their heads.  
"Well, it seems that everyone is aware of it, though only subconsciously. Unless we're imagining that our dorm mates are grumpy," Kel told Jane on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast.  
"Damn it," Jane growled, rubbing her ears. "I can still hear it! It's driving me NUTS!"  
"It appears WE'RE the only ones who are aware of it on a conscious level," Kel went on, apparently not hearing her. "Which makes sense, because of--"  
"Will you cut the scientific crap?" Jane snapped.  
Kel gave her an fiery glare.  
"Oh come on, don't tell me it doesn't annoy you too," Jane insisted.  
"It doesn't."  
"Yes, the damned incessant humming doesn't annoy you, oh great fountain of patience," she said scathingly. "And I'm a horklump."  
"No...a niffler is more like it."  
Jane glared icily at her as they climbed down the steps. "You should become a nun, you pro-discipline psycho."  
Kel did not deign to reply. "You know what, speaking of religion, why is it that you believe in Zen Buddhist principles, but live according to the Catholic religion and go to church on Hogsmeade weekends instead of having fun?" Kel sighed. "You're hopeless when you're grumpy." "You should talk, oh great tolerant nutter." They entered the Great Hall and sat at the Ravenclaw table. "Was that supposed to be sarcastic? Because I AM rather tolerant." "Braggart," Jane muttered.

After falling asleep in History of Magic, Kel, Jane, and the other grumpy Ravenclaw students trudged to the Great Hall for Lunch. "You pig," Jane grumbled as she watched Kel shovel large amounts of food onto her plate.

Kel would've returned that comment with a rude hand gesture, but she noticed Professor Umbridge looking in their direction and decided to refrain from doing so.

After glowering at her plate for a few moments, Jane slammed her fist onto the table. "I can't take this anymore!" she cried.

Kel looked at her quizzically.

"You know what I'm talking about," she growled. "The HUM."

Before Kel could reply, a shriek emanated through the halls of the castle. Both Kel's and Jane's heads whipped towards the open doors of the Great Hall, through which they could see the corridor behind them. They heard the shriek again, this time louder and easier to make out what was being said. It sounded like "omen."

Finally, they saw what was making the noise. Professor Trelawney ran past the doors of the Great Hall, shrieking over and over, "Omen! Omen!" A few moments later, they heard an unmistakable crash and yelp that could only mean that Professor Trelawney had ran into a suit of armor.

Kel and Jane looked at each other, annoyances forgotten. The only thing they knew of that could affect Sybil Trelawney like that was the hum, and if it really was the hum that had driven her to the point of running through the halls shrieking and crashing into suits of armor, then they could not have been imagining it. It had to be real. Kel and Jane finished their meal in silence and went to their next class, each trying to piece together the clues to find out what the hum was—or what was creating the hum.  
  
At six that evening, Kel, Jane, and the other Ravenclaws were in the common room, trying and failing to finish their assignments, due to lack of concentration. After a few minutes of this, Jane shut her book with a snap and got up.

"I'm going for a run. Want to come with me?" she asked Kel.

Kel shook her head. "I have to finish all this homework in one hour if I want to actually sleep tonight. I've got detention later, remember? Besides, I'm too out of shape to go for a run. I've got blubber. See?" She poked at her belly.

Jane rolled her eyes. "You're not THAT blubbery," she informed Kel. "And besides, you can get rid of that blubber if you run with me."

"What about homework? Got a remedy for that?"

"Damn. I forgot about that. Fine, finish your homework, but don't blame me when you gain five pounds from sitting around."

"No, I'll blame Snape for giving me detention."

Jane shrugged and left the common room.

Kel sighed and went back to her Care of Magical Creatures essay, "Describe the properties of runespore eggs." Well, they're hard, gray, and about a foot long, she thought. They're a very valuable potion ingredient, and they're monitored by the Ministry of Magic, because if you eat them, they increase your intelligence permanently...

She got to work.

When she was done, she went upstairs to drop off her books before going to detention. By Jane's bed she saw a few shiny objects. She went over to investigate.

They were CDs, modified to work at Hogwarts. Wilma Rygen in the fifth year had found the spell to make muggle technology work at Hogwarts, and had promptly spread the word to all in Ravenclaw.

Kel brought the CDs into the light to read them. Garth Brooks? The Dixie Chicks? Shania Twain? These were country bands! Jane listened to COUNTRY music? How lame! (A/N: I'm not saying all country music is bad, for all you country fans out there, it's just that Kel doesn't like country, and this IS her point of view, so....) Thoroughly disturbed, Kel put the CDs back and reluctantly headed to Snape's dungeon.

On her way, a few things happened. Kel noticed that the hum was growing louder with each step she took towards the dungeon. She encountered Mrs. Norris, who just happened to be in her path of walking. Not seeing her there, Kel tripped over the cat. And finally, the flow of curses that had come from her mouth attracted Peeves, who had started throwing chalk at her. Finally, she arrived at Professor Snape's lair.

The door to the Potions classroom was open. Kel steeled herself for the barrage of snide comments and attempted provocations, then walked in.

The Potions Master stood facing her, his black eyes glittering. "You're late," he told her coldly.

"Peeves and Mr. Filch's cat held me up," she answered, though she knew he would not listen to her excuse.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw for your tardiness," he said. Kel almost scowled, but, remembering that this would only give him the satisfaction of seeing that he had gotten to her, she fixed her face in a position that showed none of her inner thoughts.

"You will scrub all of these cauldrons except for the one over there," Snape told her, pointing towards a black cauldron in the center of a bunch of befouled cauldrons, "without magic. I will clean the black one myself. If I find that you have used your wand, and I will, you will be docked of twenty points and be given another detention. You have been warned."

"Yes sir," Kel replied emotionlessly, though she was pleased when she saw him scowl at her lack of interest.

Snape flicked his wand, and some of Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Cleaning Fluid and some scrubbing cloths appeared on the desk nearest the cauldrons. "You will use those to clean the cauldrons." He turned to go back to his desk, then stopped. "One more thing. If in about an hour, I have a meeting with the Headmaster. I will be leaving you here alone for fifteen to thirty minutes. If you cause any sort of mischief, I will know, and you will be very sorry indeed. Get to work."

About thirty minutes went by with the Potions Master working at his desk—most likely grading papers, Kel thought—and the Ravenclaw girl scrubbing the cauldron. Then, just when she was about to let her guard down, she saw something flash in the corner of her eye.

She stopped scrubbing the cauldron and turned her head—but strangely, nothing was there.

Professor Snape looked up at the pause in the sound of the cloth against the metal of the cauldron and noticed that the girl was staring off into space. "Khelekkir!" he snapped. Her head whipped around to face him. "Back to work." Reluctantly, she started scrubbing again.

Her mind was not in the scrubbing though. What was it that she had seen? Probably just an optical illusion, she told herself. Or else your hair got into your line of vision and you thought it was something else. Pay it no mind.

But somehow, she wasn't so sure.

Another fifteen minutes passed uneventfully before another disturbance surfaced. Kel finished scrubbing the first cauldron and had gone on to the second one when a loud noise filled the room, causing both her and Professor Snape's heads to whip around towards end of the classroom opposite to the one where Kel had seen the flash. Is it just me or did that sound like nails on a chalkboard? She asked herself. From the look on his face, Professor Snape was wondering along the same lines. They turned to face one another, her brown eyes meeting his cold black ones.

"Khelekkir," he said slowly, "what were you looking at earlier? When you stopped your scrubbing?"

"I thought I saw something," she said quietly. "A flash out of the corner of my eye. I thought I was imagining it."

He pondered this for a moment, then said, "It was probably Peeves. Go back to work."

Kel grudgingly started to scrub the cauldron again, when something big and black leaped across the room.

"Professor!" she said, alarmed, and pointed at it. He looked up in time to see the black shape land in the shadowy corner. He gave her a look that said quite plainly, "be quiet," and advanced upon the thing, wand poised. When he was about five feet away from the thing, he took aim and cried, "Stupefy!"

A jet of red light shot from his wand and at the black shape, its momentum causing the air to whip behind it, causing the parchment on Snape's desk and Kel's hair to flutter.

The black thing jumped away just in time to dodge the spell, and sped away. Impulsively, Kel leaped at the creature and managed to grab a hold of it. It screeched—a horrendous, ear-splitting sound—and struck her on the head with one of its legs. As the hard limb collided with her skull, the hum that had been bothering every person in the castle all day, whether they knew it or not, increased to such a volume that she let go with a cry and fell to the floor with a thud, her hands flying to her head in pain.

It took a while for the spots to clear from her vision. When her eyes came into focus, she saw the Potions Master standing over her with an inscrutable expression on his face. Sheepishly, she got to her feet. When Snape opened his mouth to speak, she said, "I know, it was a stupid thing to do. I wasn't thinking."

After a moment, he asked curtly, "Did it hurt you badly enough to take a trip to the Hospital Wing?" Kelenariel shook her head. "I'm fine. Just a bit of a shock, that's it." She didn't feel like explaining about the hum.

He scrutinized her for a moment, then said, "I need to go to my meeting with the Headmaster. If it shows up again, stun it, with your wand, not your fists."

He waited until he was outside to smirk at the blush that he had seen rising in her cheeks.

Kel could've smacked herself. Oh yeah, Kel, blush at the Potions Master. Snape, of all people! He'll never let you live that down!

Well, maybe he will, the more rational side of her said. But if you don't finish scrubbing these cauldrons, you'll be up till midnight.

Groaning, she picked up the next cauldron , added more of Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Cleaning Fluid to it, and started to scrub.

Finally, she reached the center cauldron, when, to her unease, the humming grew loud again.

She drew her wand from her pocket, as a precaution, and advanced towards the cauldron.

She stopped when she heard a clicking noise, like that of a dog's claws upon stone, from inside the cauldron.

And, to her horror, a small dragon—the black thing—climbed out of the cauldron, holding something in its claws. It was an egg, about half a foot long. Its hard gray shell gleamed in the dim light.

Kel gasped in recognition. It was a runespore egg.  
  
(A/N: Ha ha! ANOTHER cliffhanger! Don't worry, I'll type as much as I can, once I clear this damn writer's block. smacks head Clear smack writer's smack block! smack Clear smack writer's smack block! smack In other news.... You all must know that my editrix, Kichikitsune, does indeed bite. As it happens, I have lost her leash and muzzle. Oo...So I beg of you...Please, PLEASE do NOT touch her cheese monkeys...or you will be sorry. Yes, very sorry. Very, VERY sorry. Ever wonder how I got my scar?)  
  
(Editor's Note: Bwahahahah! I am free!! BWAHAHAHAHA!)  
  
(A/N: gulp Anyway....in case you're wondering what Kel looks like, I'll be posting a picture of me on the internet as soon as I can. When I do, I'll include the URL in my updates.)


	3. Nesheni

**Disclaimer:** The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. I own the made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni. Story edited by Kichikitsune.  
  
**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?  
  
Again, thank you reviewers! You and my fanged editor are the ones who keep this story going. No reviews, no updates due to lack of inspiration.  
  
**Scarecrow and Gnome:** Thanks for reviewing both my stories! And for your complements too. It's nice to know someone's rooting for me. And about your review for The REAL Story of Troy: I haven't seen the movie either. I do remember when my dad read my brother and I the Iliad when we were in preschool though. I thought up the parody in the car when I saw a poster for Troy on a bus and started wondering whether Paris kidnapped Helen or whether Helen went of her own will....then I went home and typed it up and so on.  
  
**Aurorarenee:** Thanks for reviewing my story! I really enjoyed the Life of Aurora Renee and Before Harry Met Sevvie. They're both amazingly written. Just to clear a couple things up: Snape isn't keeping the dragon in the cauldron. However, he is keeping something in there (you'll find out what and why in this chapter). And Kel and Jane's "special thing," for lack of a better phrase, will be explained soon, if not in this chapter. Don't worry, Kel and Jane won't be saving the world or anything. I'm still not completely sure what they'll do, but I have a lot of plot ideas to talk about with kichikitsune. At the least, they'll cause some laughs among readers (I hope). Kichikitsune had a good idea involving Dolores Umbridge's diary...MWAHAHAHAHA!!!! And one last thing: Kel and Jane aren't COMPLETELY like kichikitsune and me. For instance, I would never have had the guts to go play guitar by the Great Hall (especially since I'm a bass player), and the editor doesn't actually have straight black hair. I also never would have played all those pranks on Snape....heh heh heh.  
  
**Stephie:** About that pic...I'll probably be covering up half my face in the picture or something...so it won't be THAT unsafe...and to make it even safer, I might just draw it instead of taking a photo.  
  
**The Shivering Weeed**: Hello, Ana. I don't really have much to say, so....WEE!!!!  
  
**Swordsrock:** Yes, I'm glad you're alive and well too. Most of the mistakes in the story are typos that I made at 2, 3 o'clock in the MORNING because Kichikitsune was bugging me to type. And you pointed out all those mistakes AFTER I posted, so there was no way to change them unless I wanted to lose the reviews I got. There's one thing you didn't catch though...it's in the notice below.....mwahahahaha....  
  
And to the rest of you readers.... just for the record, my name is not really  
Darla.  
  
**YOU MUST READ THIS NOTICE!!!**  
**I have a confession to make......I SPELLED THE TITLE WRONG!!! AAAAAH! It's Runespoor, not Runespore! thwacks self on head with wooden board I'll be  
fixing the title, and I'll spell it right from now on. SORRY!!!  
**  
Chapter 3: Nesheni  
  
She could not move. Her muscles were locked in place, paralyzed in—what? Fear? Uncertainty? Plain surprise? The hum had stretched to an almost unbearable point. The high, shrill voice of panic screeched in her ears, "Do something! Do something! Do something, before it breaks that egg!"  
The dragon turned its reptilian head towards her and met her eyes. And with that, the paralysis broke.  
Kel raised her wand, hand shaking, and cried, "Stupefy!"  
The creature didn't even have to move as Kel's badly aimed, silver- tinged red jet of light flew past her. It crashed into a pickled rat on the other side of the room and blew the jar apart, shattering the glass. The sound that resulted in it echoed through the halls of the dungeons.  
The dragon glanced unconcernedly at the glass shards all over the floor and looked back up at her, its long fangs bared.  
My God, Kel thought. I'm dead.  
  
"Is there anything else you wish to discuss, Severus?" Albus Dumbledore asked.  
"Yes...there is one more thing," Snape replied. "There is currently a...thing in my dungeon. I have not been able to get a good look, but it appears to be about three feet long and black in color. The student in detention, Khelekkir, noticed it too, and unthinkingly tried to tackle it." And those Ravenclaws are supposed to be SMART, he thought with an inner smirk. "It hit her in the head."  
The headmaster frowned. "Perhaps I should check the dungeon," he said.  
Then Snape said something that one normally wouldn't hear from him. "I agree."  
Dumbledore stood and gestured towards the door. "Lead the way, Severus."  
  
"Stupefy!"  
The word echoed through the corridor that Professors Dumbledore and Snape were walking down to get to the dungeon. When they heard it, they both stopped in their tracks, frozen. When the loud CRASH! of glass breaking reached their ears, they both broke into a run, heading towards the classroom where they knew something had happened.  
When they reached their destination, a truly bizarre sight awaited them.  
There stood Khelekkir, scarred face pale, with her wand pointed at the creature atop the cauldron. The said creature had four strong legs ending in long, sharp talons. It had a streamlined body, a powerful looking, foot long tail, and a slender, reptilian head, its molten eyes gleaming in their sockets. Ridges grew from its back, and on both sides of the ridges, small, under-developed wings that would someday carry it in flight grew. Lustrous black scales covered all of its body, save the ridges. Those were copper-scaled.  
In its claws, the dragon held a runespoor egg.  
Snape paled. Runespoor eggs were extremely valuable, not to mention dangerous, as they increased the intelligence of anything that ate them. The Ministry of Magic also monitored them. He had just obtained seven of them for use in a potion—not for class, of course, but for his own reasons. If the dragon broke the egg it was holding, that would be a lot of Galleons gone down the drain.  
For a moment, the air in the room was utterly and unnatural still, as if the dungeon itself was holding its breath. And then, chaos. Severus Snape lunged in as the dragon sank its long fangs into the egg with a crunch and quickly devoured it.  
Snape snarled and with an almighty effort tried to tear the dragon from the cauldron, but it was too strong for him. In a flash of black and copper, the Potions Master fell to the floor, knocking the cauldron along with him, a gash on his pale face gushing blood.  
Dumbledore stepped in front of Snape's prone figure, power emanating from the tall old wizard. Kel could feel the power run through her, and could've sworn that the air had rippled. The headmaster pointed his wand at the dragon and shouted, "Imobulus!"  
And suddenly the black and copper creature was subdued.  
The dragon snarled and fought the bonds that held it in vain. "Damn you!" it hissed.  
Kel nearly dropped her wand. "It...it talked. Did it just talk?" she croaked.  
The dragon turned its head to glare at her. "Yes, I did. And I'm not 'it.' I demand to be called something other than 'it.'"  
"What brings you here?" Dumbledore inquired.  
"The eggs," the dragon hissed after a moment. "The runespoor eggs. They taste delicious," it added.  
Kel saw Snape pale even more under his mask of blood. Only then did she notice the strange gray shards on the floor.  
Dumbledore noticed it to, apparently, because his next question was, "How many did you eat?"  
The dragon tilted its head to the side, as if thinking, then held up four claws.  
The headmaster stared at the quartet of long, shiny talons, then turned to the Potions professor, who was still on the floor. "What were those eggs doing in the cauldron?" he asked.  
Snape was quick to answer. "Students have been able to break into my private stores before, Headmaster. Inside my personal cauldron is the one place that no one would look."  
Dumbledore nodded, accepting his reply.  
Wow, Kel thought. I never would've thought of that hiding place. Snape is pretty brilliant....Oh my God. I can't believe I just thought that.  
The dragon let out an earsplitting shriek, bringing their attention back to it.  
The headmaster recovered first. "Do you know where you came from?" he asked it.  
The dragon shook its head. "I remember being in the big forest, the one with the man-horse things. Then I smelled the runespoor eggs and flew through one of those holes in the walls, what's it called...a window? Yeah, that's it, window. Well anyway, I climbed through one of those, and followed the scent to here. I would've gotten them sooner, but the girl got in the way." It jerked its head at Kel. "Tricky one, she is."  
"What are we going to do with this dragon?" Snape asked.  
The dragon turned its head to him. "As I said before, I'm not 'it' or 'this dragon.' I DEMAND to be called something other than 'this dragon!'"  
"We shall certainly refer to you as something other than 'that dragon,'" Dumbledore assured it diplomatically. "What would you wish to be called?"  
The dragon shrugged—or would have, had she not been bound by the Headmaster's spell. "I dunno. You think of something. I'm a girl, by the way."  
Silence fell as the wizards and the witch tried to think of a name. Maybe something in a different language? Kel thought. Something that no one speaks anymore. Latin? Greek? Ancient Sumerian? Nah, I don't know Ancient Sumerian...maybe Jane does...Elvish? No one speaks Elvish, it's from a muggle children's book...  
"Rage," Snape said.  
"Nesheni," Kel said.  
The headmaster and the dragon stared at them. "Well, Nesheni is Rage in Ancient Egyptian," Kel said with a shrug. Thank you for telling me that, Jane, she thought.  
"Nesheni...I like that," the dragon said. "Yes, that shall be my name. Nesheni."  
Snape scowled. With that, Nesheni looked them over, as if eyeing a potential meal and speculating whether to use salt or pepper on it. "Well, now you may ask, "What will we do with Nesheni?'"  
  
(**A/N:** I am so sorry for the long gap between updates. I've been at a day camp run by fascists and had writer's block for about a week. Not to mention the fact that my computer is absolutely disgustingly infested with viruses and spyware and other infernal crap like that. I hate my computer. Of course, Kichikitsune has been bugging me to write...and write....and write some more...So finally it's done! Hopefully chapter 4 will come sooner. Oh yes....I still haven't found Kichikitsune's leash...so watch out...oh by the way I'm not making her up. She's actually in the process of writing her own fanfiction right now. Just FYI...)  
  
(**Editor's Note:** My cheese monkeys are safe and I like being off my leash. And in my free time I will kill Swordsrock. DAMNIT ANNIE DON'T CALL ME KATIA!! I'm KATI DAMNIT! takes out her beloved chainsaw and chases maniacally after Swordsrock)


	4. That drag, er, Nesheni

**Disclaimer: **The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. I own the made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary: **Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

Now before you roast me for taking a month to write chapter four, keep in mind that I've been attending a day camp run by fascists, have been plagued with writer's block, and had to go to Los Vegas when I could've been at home writing this! Not to mention the fact that my brother had surgery on 8/10 and is currently in the hospital!!! And if you've had surgery before, (like me, I've had six, on my face, no less) then you will know that recovery is ABSOLUTE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!! But guess what? Seeing someone _else_ in recovery is even WORSE!!!! Especially if it's your idiotic but loveable brother!

So spare me my life, dear readers! Especially because if you roast me, no one writes chapter five!

Reviews! I love reviews! They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :-) And remember, no review, no update. I don't start chapter five unless I get at least one little email that says, "Review alert!"

**Steph**: Yes, Kichikitsune chose that name partially because she uses it a lot, but mostly because it fits the character so well.

**Fluegelle**: Kel only knows that one word of Ancient Egyptian from Jane, who studies Ancient Egypt.

**Swordsrock**: Good to know you're back in town. Please don't get yourself killed by the editor, because if you do, you can't fix chapter two of your fic....wait a minute....YOU DELETED YOUR FIC!!!!!!!!!!! FOR SHAME!!!! Now I can't review it! :-(

**Aurorarenee: **I never even noticed that. Thank you. Most dragons in other series speak either in riddles, their own language, or not at all, but Nesheni is very different, considering she now has human level intelligence and is hanging around humans. And Kichikitsune created her personality...that has to account for something....

Chapter 4: _"That Drag—er, Nesheni."_

"A good question," said Dumbledore, "And one that needs answering. Severus, could I have a word with you in your office?"

"Certainly, Headmaster," he replied.

Dumbledore turned to Kel. "Miss Khelekkir, could you keep an eye on Nesheni?"

"Yes sir," she answered.

Dumbledore nodded and went into Snape's office.

Both the dragon and the human were silent as the Headmaster and Potions Master discussed the problem at hand.

"We'll have to keep her here, Severus. She's too intelligent, and will know quite well how to cause trouble. Otherwise very dangerous."

"Couldn't we give her to the Ministry? No, wait, the Ministry isn't too fond of us right now. If we handed the dragon over, they'd undoubtedly make some bogus story about us feeding dragons runespoor eggs."

"Exactly."

Nesheni's ears pricked up.

'Professor' Umbridge would definitely support that story, Kel thought grimly.

"Alright, the question of where she is going to stay is settled. Now we must ask where in Hogwarts she will stay. Maybe we could build a room in your chambers, Severus...."

"I-I couldn't possibly--"

"Couldn't possibly what?"

"I couldn't manage a dragon! You know that!"

"Why neither could I. Imagine what the former Headmasters and Headmistresses would say if I kept a _dragon_ in my office..."

Kel looked over at the dragon in question. Nesheni seemed to be quite enjoying the attention lavished on her..

"Perhaps Hagrid could keep her," Snape said hopefully.

Wow, I never thought I'd hear Snape hopeful, especially for something that would be to Hagrid's liking, Kel thought.

"That would be a good idea if Hagrid's hut wasn't made of _wood,_" Dumbledore said pointedly.

Or Dumbledore sardonic.

Kel started to chuckle quietly and, to her surprise, noticed that Nesheni was doing the same.

"Then—then--"

"She is staying with _you_, Severus, whether you like it or not."

Snape spluttered incoherently.

Kel was now leaning against a desk struggling to hold her laughter in. Nesheni fought the same battle, and, finally, lost. Her laughter rang through the room, silencing both adults in the other room.

After a moment, Snape spoke. "Perhaps we could continue this conversation with a _listening charm _on the room," he nearly snarled.

"Why certainly, Severus. Allow me," Dumbledore answered cheerfully.

A moment later, Kel saw a flash of light shine through the crack under the door, and she could hear no more of their conversation...and she regretted it, because she certainly wanted to hear Snape grovel.

Nesheni, however, appeared to be listening quite as intently as before, and now and then she would shake with silent laughter.

Finally, she whispered to Kel, "Have you ever heard greasy Severus whine?"

Kelenariel giggled, a thing she rarely did. "No," she managed to whisper, before collapsing into silent laughter—again.

Nesheni chuckled, then went silent, apparently listening hard.

Kel stared into a corner of the dungeon, not seeing anything. She tried to figure out exactly what kind of dragon Nesheni was. She's black. That doesn't help much. She has ridges on her back...big ones. Perhaps she's part Norwegian Ridgeback. Yeah, definitely. What else? What dragons are there with copper scales? Maybe a Vipertooth—

"IF YOU DO THAT, I'LL BITE YOU, AND MY FANGS ARE VENEMOUS!!!!!!" Nesheni shouted suddenly.

Definitely a Vipertooth mix then, if she has venomous fangs, she concluded. Wait a minute—

"You can hear them?" Kel asked incredulously.

Nesheni gave her a strange look. "'Course I can," she answered. "Why? Can't you hear them too?"

"N-No," she answered. "Professor Dumbledore cast a listening charm on that room. We aren't supposed to be able to hear anything from there."

The adults were apparently thinking upon the same lines, because Nesheni cocked her head and said mournfully, "Damn, they stopped talking."

"What were they going to do?" Kel asked.

Nesheni looked at her strangely again. "They were going to erase your memory so you couldn't remember any of this happening," she answered.

Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing an enraged Snape and a mild Dumbledore.

"You!" Snape hissed, pointing a long finger at Nesheni. "How did you hear that?"

"Strange, she asked me the same question," Nesheni replied, jerking her head at Kel. "By the way, I still don't know your name," she added.

"Kelenariel Khelekkir, Kel for short," she answered. Why she had given the dragon her full name she didn't know, but she felt that talking to the dragon was the same as talking to another human her own age. She had no idea why, but she trusted Nesheni.

"Good thing you have a short name, because I wouldn't be able to remember the long one," Nesheni remarked mildly.

"You still haven't answered my question," Snape snarled.

Nesheni stared at the Potions Master. "I heard it. I listened. I didn't do any weird stuff to hear it. I just...heard."

"You _heard,_" he repeated.

"Yes, I _HEARD. _Is that so strange to you?" Nesheni asked. "And yes, if you erase Kel's memory, I _will_ bite you," she added, as Snape, for the second time that day, spluttered incoherently.

"Perhaps I made a mistake casting it," Dumbledore remarked. "But you couldn't hear anything, could you, Kelenariel?"

"No sir," Kel answered.

"Or maybe....well, yes, it is possible," Dumbledore muttered, apparently to himself. "After all, I have sensed something similar from..."

He suddenly seemed to notice that Professor Snape, Kel, and Nesheni were all listening to this private conversation, and stopped talking.

"Nesheni, have you ever done anything...unexplainable?" he asked her.

Nesheni wrinkled up her snout, which was a very strange activity to watch a dragon perform. "Yeah...there was this four-legged thing in the forest...it tried to shoot these wooden sticks at me—arrows, they were called...yeah, arrows...but before the arrows hit, they would blow up into pieces...it was weird..."

"Hmm..." Dumbledore said, apparently talking to himself again. "Possible, definitely possible..."

Once again, he became aware of everyone in the room staring at him. "Er...anyway, Nesheni, we've decided what to do with you."

The dragon looked at him expectantly.

"You will stay in a room set up for you in Professor Snape's chambers," he said. Professor Snape's scowl became even sourer. "Oh don't mope like that, Severus, it's not good for your skin," he said cheerfully. Kel fought not to smile. "You will be let out twice a day for exercise." His expression suddenly turned serious. "However, you cannot leave your room at any other time of day. No one must know of your existence. Kelenariel," he looked at her, "you may not tell anyone. Not even Miss Dumont. I have no doubt that she would keep this a secret if she knew, but we cannot risk it anyone outside this room knowing. If certain people find out, there is no knowing what they will do about Nesheni. This is for all of our safety and yours. Nesheni," he turned back to her, "you will be fed three times a day: in the morning before class, at noon, and in the evening after class. If any additional arrangements are made, you will be informed as soon as possible."

"Sounds good to me," Nesheni replied. "Except for one thing."

The three humans looked at her expectantly.

"Kel has to visit."

They stared at her.

Kel recovered first. "Sounds pretty good to me," she said. "I have a lot of homework though, so I won't be able to visit more than twice a week unless I'm lucky. And, of course, Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape have to agree too." She looked at them for answers.

"It sounds perfectly fine with me," the Headmaster said. "Well, Severus?"

Professor Snape looked as though he would like nothing better than to strangle Dumbledore. He looked at the Headmaster, then at Kel, then at Nesheni, who bared a fang threateningly and mimed biting him in the leg. Finally, he gave a curt nod.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said briskly. "One more thing." He waved his wand at Nesheni, who was swathed in a sky-blue light for a few seconds. When the light faded, he undid the binding spell on her. "Now it is physically impossible for you to do major damage to a human. However, you can still do minor damage, because the spell that would've prevented that is too weak for you. You'd easily break through it." He dug into his pocket and drew out what looked like an ordinary pocket watch, only it had twelve hands instead of three, glanced at it, then said, "I think that's it. I must be going now. I'd suggest that you organize Nesheni's chamber with the thirty minutes before curfew. Good night Severus, Nesheni, Kelenariel." And with an amused smile and a whip of robes around the corner, he was gone.

Kel's hopes sank as the Headmaster left the room. _Oh great, JUST great. I have to organize a room with _SNAPE_??? I'm doomed!_

Severus was thinking along the same lines. _Fix up that drag-er, _Nesheni's _room? With _KHELEKKIR? _Good Lord, kill me now! _

The student and the professor glared at each other until Nesheni broke the silence. "Come on people, I want to sleep! Let's fix up my room already!"

At last, the humans broke their staring contest, and, grudgingly, Snape started to unlock the door to his chambers.

_If that barmy old codger thinks this is amusing, I'll deliver him to the Dark Lord myself!!!...Well, no, not really...but I'll do something equally bad! _

Kel scowled. _I bet Dumbledore thinks making me work with Snape is funny. This is not fair!!! Why couldn't _he _do it, the lazy old man! _

Nesheni cleared her throat. "I'm _waiting_," she said impatiently.

Snape gave her a glare that would've sent a first year running. However, Nesheni seemed unaffected by it.

With a sigh, he opened the door for them.

"It's such a small room!" Nesheni whined. "No room to run around!"

"No light either," Khelekkir observed softly. Severus didn't know whether she said it to herself or to him.

He glared down at them. "This is the only room I can spare, and whether you like it or not, you, dragon, are staying here."

Both female's heads shot up at him as if offended.

"Dragon? _Dragon_? For the last time, my name is not _dragon_. It's NESHENI!!!"

"If you're going to be sharing your chambers with her, at least treat her with the respect you would give a human being," Khelekkir said angrily.

"After all, I _can_ make your life hell," Nesheni added.

_And they gang up on me, just like everyone else I've met has. I should've known. Why do they do so? Why did that foul Potter and Black do so long ago? Why did every student in my year do so? Well, not every one...Evans didn't...Is it my lot in life to be forever discriminated against? The girl talks of respect for human beings—can they not see that I am a human being too? _

"Fine then—Nesheni. This is your room. You don't like it, then that is your problem. The sooner w—the sooner it's set up, the better." He couldn't bring himself to say "we" in reference to himself and _Khelekkir_. "We need some sort of bed and food dishes at the very least."

Kel stared at him. _Whoa—he didn't even insult us! Is he sick? Should I get Madam Pomphrey?_

"What else do you need?" he snarled at Nesheni.

_That's more like it_, she thought.

"Uh....when do I wash?" she asked.

"We have yet to work that out with the Headmaster."

"Okay, for now we need something to wash in, then."

The Potions Master flicked his wand, and a moment later, a bath tub appeared in the corner.

"Now, a bed....hmm....some nice fluffy cushions, perhaps?"

Severus irritably flicked his wand and caused a bunch of fluffy cushions to appear in the corner of the small room, and, before she could ask, he flicked it again, causing food bowls to appear.

"Good good," Nesheni muttered. "Kel, can you help me arrange these pillows?"

_Not a word of thanks for all that I do, for the school, for all those times I risk my life for the Order playing spy, not even for setting up this room for a bossy, intruding dragon..._

A sudden shriek split the air in the room, causing Severus to whirl around in time to see Khelekkir shake a spider off her hand. "Sorry, it's just that...." He gave her his famous "I-am-so-mean-and-scary-you-stupid-little-kid-so-run-away-screaming" glare. "...spiders freak me out," she muttered. Disgusted, he turned around as she said, "I HATE spiders."

..._not to mention dealing with arachnophobic, irritating Ravenclaw weirdos whose life mission is to give me hell! _

"Is that all you require?" Severus asked coldly.

The obnoxious dragon thought a moment, then said, "Yes."

"Then you may go," Severus intoned to the arachnophobe, heaving an internal sigh of relief.

Kel raised a hand in farewell to Nesheni, then left without a word.

_Well, that was only the whole night! _she thought sarcastically. _The only bad part was when he found out I was afraid of spiders. I can't help it! They're just so...creepy. The scuttle around on their eight legs and float around on their invisible webs and...uck. _

Wearily, she trudged to the Ravenclaw common room entrance, spoke the password, and climbed in. Immediately, she was met with a barrage of complaints from Jane.

"Why did the detention take so long? Do you know what time it is?!? Your homework isn't even half done yet! You only have one night left for that Transfiguration essay, and you've barely even started taking notes! He should've let you out earlier than this, the b--"

Kel sighed.

"But still, why didn't you start on it earlier? This is partly your fault too, you know. You shouldn't become a procrastinator! You only broke the habit of waiting 'til the last minute a year ago, you can't start again now!"

"I started the Charms essay before the Transfiguration one because it was due sooner. Charms took longer than I expected, so I didn't have time to start Transfiguration. No, I don't know what time it is, and the detention took so long because..."

She remembered Dumbledore's warning: _"You may not tell anyone. Not even Miss Dumont. I have no doubt that she would keep this a secret if she knew, but we cannot risk anyone outside this room knowing. If certain people find out, there is no knowing what they will do about Nesheni."_

"...because this first year made a big mess in his cauldron and it was especially hard to clean out," she finished quickly. _I lied!_ she wailed inside. _I lied to my best friend! What kind of a person am I, telling falsehoods to someone I've known and trusted since before Hogwarts? _

Jane narrowed her eyes in a skeptical manner. "Yeah right," she answered. "What you just told me is the absolute truth, which is why your eyes are all scrunched up and your eyebrows are pointing downwards, and your jaws are clenched and you look overall pretty constipated. Yes, you told me each and every detail of the unbiased truth, which is why I should give you ex-lax. Now spill the beans."

"I told you, the first year left a pretty nasty mess behind," Kel said easily. "It looked like crap."

Jane yawned. "You promised not to tell, didn't you?" When Kel opened her mouth to protest, Jane said, "I know you, Kel. You hate breaking promises. But you hate lying too."

"For the last time, the first year--"

"If you hate lying as much as you say you do, then why are you lying to me?"

"I'm going to start that Transfiguration essay," Kel said firmly. "Upstairs." And marched towards the said stairs.

"You're not answering my queeeeeestioooooon!" Jane called after her.

Kel pretended not to hear her and continued up the steps until she reached the sixth year level, where she jumped over the barricade of books, music, and other junk that obscured the floor around her bed and flopped onto her navy blue four-poster. This wasn't fair. Just because she had seen that damned drag—_Nesheni_, she had to lie to Jane and risk losing her best friend. And it didn't help that Jane was using the guilt card. She _knew_ how much Kel hated to lie! Why did Jane have to go all "why are you lying to me" on her?!? Didn't she see that she had no choice? She was in a lose-lose situation! Either way she _had_ to lie! It was either break her promise to Dumbledore and risk getting Nesheni hurt in some way or lie to her best friend! Jane had been in a similar situation with her before! They had been told in the third year not to tell Cho Chang, who slept in the same dormitory as them, that John Dewaro fancied her. That same day, Cho had come up to them asking, "Does anyone fancy me?" Jane and Kel had been forced to lie to Cho, saying, "Not that we know of."

As Kelenariel thought back on that episode, she pounded her pillow with her fist. Damn it! She _knew_ what it was like to be on this side of the situation! Could she at least _try_ to understand Kel's side?

_I'd better get my homework done_.

Kel pulled her bag onto her bed, closed her curtains, lit a candle with her wand, and started her essay on Transfiguring humans into animals.

When she was finishing her rough draft, somebody's footsteps sounded up the stairs. Hurriedly, she stopped writing, closed her ink bottle, and put out her candle so she could pretend she was asleep behind the curtains.

A moment later, the footsteps reached the sixth year landing and stopped. After a pause, Jane's voice rang through the dormitory, which was empty except for Kel.

"I know you're there, Kel. Look, let's not stay mad at each other. I'm not saying I'm okay with this, but there's a chance you might have some semi-good reason for keeping secrets...like that time with Cho and John. So let's just go on as normal. Deal?"

Kel pushed back the curtains and lit the candle with her wand again. "Deal."

Jane grinned. "Excellent. Now, I still don't get that assignment we got in Divination, and seeing as you're so good at it, I thought I might seek your help.

Kel shook her head, smiling. "I should'a known you had another reason to come up here."

Joking and elbowing each other, the two friends got to work.

The next day, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs set out for Double Potions, groaning. But one particular person groaned loudest.

"Good God, I can't spend another hour in here with Snape! He was in a really bad mood last night during detention, it was horrible." Kel moaned.

"Hey, I noticed something," Jane said.

"What?"

"There's a notch in that rock."

"Jane, out of all the random things—"

"Just kidding, that's not what I was going to say."

"Then what _were_ you going to say?"

"There's a notch in that rock. Kidding, kidding," she added as Kel opened her mouth to complain. "The hum's gone down."

"Hey, you're right. I didn't notice it. I was too busy 'peering into the future' by order of Trelawney."

Jane snorted. "Mm hmm. Trelawney is _such _an authentic seer."

"Well, you never know. Maybe she is," Kel mused.

Jane stared at her disbelievingly. "Kel, Trelawney hasn't made _one _true prophecy since we joined her class in the third year. You could easily take her job, and _none_ of the students would doubt you for a second. And here you are saying that she just might be a real seer?"

"Well she might have predicted something in the past, you never know. I only See—"

At that moment, the door to the Potions classroom opened, revealing a very pissed Potions master.

"Silence!" he commanded.

And instantly, the crowd of hormone-crazed teenagers was silent.

"You will seat yourselves in groups of two when I let you in. Once you are seated, you will be silent until I give you leave to start the potion we will be brewing in class today."

Jane raised a brow.

"You may now file into the classroom."

Kel and Jane went to the back of the line and waited as the people in the front slowly filed in.

As they got closer to the front, Kel noticed that Snape looked especially tired. His skin was, if possible, even paler than usual, and there were bags under his cold black eyes. For a second, his sleeve slid back in a flash of white bandage before he hastily pulled it up again. _Oh my God_, she thought. _Nesheni mauled him!_

"Khelekkir, Dumont, I'm splitting you," Snape said savagely when they reached the front. "Khelekkir, pair up with Dewaro. Dumont, pair up with Chang."

Jane never missed an opportunity. "Yes, sir!" she squeaked girlishly, then skipped off to join Cho, who was looking apprehensive at the thought of Jane Dumont as her partner.

Kel walked off to John Dewaro (who was much happier with his partner than Cho was) in, as always, a more sedate fashion.

She gave him a small smile in way of greeting before looking at Professor Snape expectantly. John was a friend of Jane and Kel to the extent of talking to them and occasionally hanging out with them at meals and after classes. Sometimes the three of them studied together, particularly in Divination and History of Magic, which were Kel's strongest suits, and Care of Magical Creatures, Jane's favorite class. In return, he'd help them with Astronomy.

Snape moved up to the front of the classroom, commanding everyone's attention.

"Today we will be working on...."

And so Potions class began.

"Ugh," John said, holding up a small, slippery object. "Lionfish spleen." They were now working on their potion.

Kel smiled. "Your dreaded potion ingredient. For me, though, it reminds me of the best Potions class ever."

They both grinned, and quoted at the same time, "Just because _you're_ PMSing doesn't mean you should take it out on him!"

Jane was having a good time too. Cho was not.

"I like sponge-monkeys," Jane informed her. "And rainbow butterflies."

"That's—er—great," Cho said, quite freaked out.

"And the giant yellow metal cucumbers that Kel always talks about," Jane continued. "They talk to me too. D'you know what they told me?"

"Er—"

"The world is going to end!" Jane whispered dramatically.

"Have you been smoking something?" Cho asked sharply.

Jane looked surprised. "Why, no!" she said.

"Good."

"Have you heard of the crumple-horned snorkack?

"No! No, I haven't! And I'm tired of you acting like some sort of—of—"

"Of what?"

"GAAAAAAAAAH!"

"What was the meaning of that, Chang?" a cold voice said from behind them.

Cho pointed at Jane, who was still smiling. "I CAN'T STAND HER!!!" she cried.

Professor Snape looked down his long nose at the enraged sixth-year. "Chang, switch with McNevin."

The one in question stood. At 6 feet in height, Liam McNevin was a bit taller then the other boys in the class. His dead straight, sleek black hair hung messily about his shoulders and into his eyes, choppy and uneven. Thin black brows crested fox-green eyes that, while Liam was usually very mellow and amiable, held a definite spark of mischief. His skin was fair, creamy, however not pale. He was rather lanky and tended to walk as though no matter where his feet took him, he would end up where he needed to be. However her somehow managed to always seem alert. He was expert in Care of Magical Creatures, but otherwise, his grades were...less then perfect. Finally he sat down beside Jane with that laid back smile that he gave to everyone that was a friendly aquantance.

"'Ello, mate," he said in an Irish lilt. "How far are you on your potion?"

"Ah, about half-way through preparing the ingredients. Have you heard of the crumple-horned snorkack?"

Liam laughed. "Aye, I heard it from Luna Lovegood. She was also talking about—"

But what exactly Luna had been talking about Liam didn't get to say, for, out of the blue, an ear-grating screech echoed through the castle, causing several students in the room to shriek and drop whatever they were holding.

Snape, instead of looking surprised, looked positively murderous. "Settle down, class, settle d—"

Another screech filled the air.

Snape's right eye twitched, and he said, "I am going to leave the room. If I find out any of you have left your seats, you will have detention."

And with that, Snape swept out the door.

Immediately, the classroom exploded with talk.

"What was that?" Liam exclaimed.

"Sounded like one of the Nazgûl to me," Kel said calmly from across the room.

"What?" John asked.

"Nazgûl, John, Nazgûl. They're the Ulairi, the Nine, the ringwraiths. The bane of the Fellowship!"

"Er...what are those?"

Kel sighed. "I keep on forgetting that no one reads the Lord of the Rings in the wizarding world.

"Oh."

The other students were busy coming up with ideas of what the screech could've come from.

"It souded like a hippogriff.

"Or an eagle."

"Maybe it was Professor Trelawney!"

"Hey Cho! What do you think it was?"

"Uh....a mandrake?" Cho answered.

"Nah, if that was a mandrake, we'd all be unconscious," one student said.

"Or dead," said another.

"Yeah, that too."

"Hey Khelekkir!" Liam called. "What do you think it is?"

"Eh...maybe a thestral, possibly Moaning Myrtle," she called back.

But Kel knew the screech didn't come from the Nazgûl, or a hippogriff, or Professor Trelawney, or a mandrake, or anything else the students thought up. No. The only creature alive in the castle with the vocal cords to make that sound was a certain scaly, sassy, black-and-copper dragon named Nesheni.

(A/N: FINALLY! IT IS FINISHED! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This is probably the longest chapter yet. No, this IS the longest chapter yet. It's ten pages in 12 point, Times New Roman font. TEN PAGES! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THAT IS???????? Okay you can tell I'm going crazy. I'm just going to end this note with a spoiler: **IF YOU DO NOT WANT A SPOILER DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS!!!** You find out about Kel and Jane's "special quality" in the next chapter or so! Oh and one more thing: Kichikitsune is writing an HP fic. And guess what? It was MY idea!!! Mwahahahahaha! Aaanyway. It's about stuff that she and I would do to the HP characters! Keep in mind that it does not, I repeat, does NOT have anything to do with Runespoor Eggs! We only reuse Kel and Jane because they are basically the embodiment of me and the editor on . Except Kichikitsune doesn't really have straight black hair.)

(Editor's Note: Run, Swordsrock, run, for I am free and about to write a fic!! NEEHEEHEE! Ok I'll be quiet now. If anyone has any questions as to my existence, seeing as my profile doesn't show up yet, email me at Oh yeah.uhm..Cheese-monkeys are made of cosmic cheese. Do not forget this or I shall impail you on a stick, and use your innards for my belt...lets eee..I'll shove you head into a blender..Ok I'll stop now. Byeee!)


	5. Schism

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

Summary: Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

YAY!!!!!!!!! I GOT REVIEWED!!!!!!!!!! MWEEEEEHEEEE!!!!!!!! Okay, here goes:

**Sirius'sheelah**: THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING!!!!! I am overly hyper. Sorry about the extremely long previous chapter, but I couldn't really find a good place to cut off until I got to the 10th page. It would've been kind of awkward if I had ended sooner.

**Steph**: You reviewed as me!!! Haha! As I said to sirius'sheelah, I am overly hyper. Perhaps I haven't had enough sugar.....

Swordsrock: Poor you. Kati's gonna be chasing you for a LONG time. Best drink a can of Red Bull, poor little duckling. (Ha ha....that duckling thing is from Making Fiends, which you probably already know.) And no, you cannot randomly pop up and slap Snape. That's MY job. And after I slap him, I can fulfill my life's dream of psychoanalyzing him, hee hee! And then I could f—What? What did you think I was going to say? You sick minded little girl, you...I was going to say that I could finally hook him up with someone! Jeez! 

**Jgalttuhs**: Thank you! Don't worry, I WILL continue this story. I'm always gonna have at least one review, because if my school friends didn't review me, I'd nag them to the brink of insanity to do so. :-D

Chapter 5: _Schism_

"Kel? Kel? Helloooooo?" Jane waved her hand in front of her friend's blank face. "Earth to Kel!"

"What? What? What's happening?"

Jane sighed. "I just asked you a question."

"Oh. What question?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"The thing that made that noise."

"So you think it was Moaning Myrtle, eh?"

No answer. Kel was staring out into space again.

"Why do you have that blank look on your face, damn it! What are you hiding?" Jane cried.

Now it was Kel's turn to be angry. "Why do you think I'm hiding something just because I zoned out? You've done the same while I was talking to you so many times I've stopped counting! And now you're berating me?"

"I _know_ you're hiding something, don't give me that crap about zoning out! It may be normal for me to zone out. But it certainly isn't a habit that you've picked up!"

Students around were starting to stare at them. They had seen the pair argue before, but never this intensely.

"You already know my answer on that, so you can quit causing a scene!" She lowered her voice. "People are staring at us, you know."

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHETHER PEOPLE ARE STARING OR NOT!" Jane shouted.

"Fine! Don't give a damn! I, however, do give a damn, so lower your voice!"

"Ooh, catfight," a male in the crowd sniggered.

Jane wheeled around. "SHUT UP!!!!" she screamed at the unfortunate lad, who was wearing the badge of Slytherin upon his robes. A terrified look spread across the boy's face as he was made subject to the unarguably murderous Dumont Stare, a thing so terrifying that it became Hogwarts Legend. At one point, the victim of her glare (a Gryffindor) had laughed at it, thinking she was bluffing. What a very big mistake that was, for just as he had done so, she had lunged, taken a hold of his arm, and logged her teeth in it. Remembering this incident, the Slytherin boy stumbled back into his friends, who laughed and punched his shoulders, saying, "Ooh, Theo got served!"

"YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!"

Fortunately, they were far away from the Potions classroom by now, so Professor Snape didn't hear any of 

Snape's presence wouldn't have changed the mood, though, as Jane was just as intimidating as him as she stared down at the Slytherin boys, who were in the year below them.

"Okay," one of them whimpered quietly.

Without a word, Jane stormed out of the corridor.

Kel walked over to the cowering Slytherin boys and said audibly, "You deserved that." The group shrank back. Kel gave a harsh laugh, then followed after Jane.

After weaving through the students in the hallways, she finally caught up with Jane. "Okay, you were prying into my private business before you caused that scene back there. Let's continue that conversation, shall we?"

No answer.

"Jane?"

Somehow, she knew that the silence Jane gave her was going to last a long time.

"Hey Nesheni," Kel said wearily.

"Hiya!"

"How you been?"

"HYPER! HYPER! HYPER! HYPER! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"How'd you get like this?" Kel asked suspiciously.

"She drank some of my coffee when I wasn't looking," Professor Snape answered sourly from the doorway.

Kel's eyebrows shot up. "You drink _coffee?" _

"What did I just say, Khelekkir?"

"Somebody's in a bad mood," Nesheni remarked sardonically.

"That reminds me," Kel said suddenly. "During Potions class today, everyone heard a screech coming from a certain four-legged reptile's mouth."

"HYPER!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

"Nesheni," Kel growled, "you're avoiding the comment."

"What comment?"

"You screeched during Potion's class!" Kel shouted. "And I had to convince everybody it was Moaning Myrtle! And even after that, most people were convinced that Professor Trelawney had a stroke!"

"Hee hee! Coffee! Got any more coffee, Severus?"

"First of all, you cannot call me Severus. To you I am Professor Snape. And no, you may not have any more coffee!"

"You haven't answered me, Nesheni!" Kel snarled.

"HYPER! HYPER! HYPER! WEEEEEEE!"

"NESHENI! WE KNOW YOU'RE HYPER! ANSWER THE FRIGGIN' QUESTION!!!!!!"

"Looks like Snapey's not the only one in a bad mood," Nesheni said.

At this, Kelenariel emitted a Cho Chang-like cry of "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Be quiet, Khelekkir!" Snape snapped. To Nesheni, he said, "Silence, you insufferable creature!"

"Tee hee hee," Nesheni answered.

Kel turned to the Potions Master in desperation. "Do you have some kind of antidote to caffeine?" she asked.

"I used the last of my stock three days ago and haven't been able to brew more."

"Dear God no..."

"Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!"

Kel grabbed Nesheni's head in her hands and said, "Nesheni, we're being serious. If you continue screeching, eventually you will be found out and shipped away from here. Or worse. The Ministry of Magic will definitely think of something worse. So no screeching. Got it?"

"Fine, fine, just give me coffee!"

The rest of that night's visitation was very long indeed.

While Kel was dealing with the caffeine-dosed Nesheni, Jane sat alone in the common room, attacking her homework with more force than normal. Whenever someone came within five feet of her, she snapped at them to "go away" or "find a place of your own." Unsurprisingly, she had five feet of student-free space around her particular couch. Just as she was shoving her Charms homework back into her bag, a light, male, Irish voice asked, "May I join you?"

She replied with a curt "No."

He laughed. "If I sit down anyway, will you bite me like you did that poor Gryffindor way back?"

"I just might."

He gave a laugh. "Maybe when you've seen me face you'll think otherwise."

"I know who you are, Liam McNevin, and my answer remains the same."

Liam laughed again and sat beside her. "Come on, tell me what's wrong. I don't see Kelenariel anywhere, so I assume the two of you had a quarrel of some sort."

"You guessed right." _Why am I telling him this?_ she wondered.

"Ah... what was the tiff about?"

Jane turned to face him. "Why are you asking me this?"

Liam looked surprised. "Why I simply noticed you were down, so I wanted to see what was wrong. People do care about you, you know."

"That's surprising."

"Why is that?"

Jane glared at him.

"Okay, I'll back away from that subject to avoid being bitten by a rabid Dumont," he said, grinning.

"Why are you so damn cheerful?"

"Well I'm looking at your pretty face, isn't that enough to make any man happy?"

Jane narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"What?"

Jane shook her head and sighed.

"What, you're not used to male attention? I'm surprised at that."

Jane blinked at him.

"Well you're a perfectly desirable lass, I don't see why—"

"Get off my couch."

"Wha—"

"I'm not in the mood for this, Liam, so either be supportive or get off my couch."

Liam sighed. "Fine, fine. What do you want to talk about?"

They talked about a number of things—Umbridge, the new rumor Luna Lovegood was spreading around about Crumple-horned Snorkacks, Hagrid's new Care of Magical Creatures lesson on crups, and the bassist of the Weird Sisters. With a conversation to keep her busy, Jane forgot all about the fight she had with Kel.

She remembered, however, when the Kel walked into the room looking as though she'd fall over on the spot. When Kel looked over at her, Jane threw her a dirty look, then turned back to Liam and answered a question he had asked about guitars with renewed vigor.

Liam's smile melted away when he noticed her reaction to Kel's return. "Jane, will you tell me what happened with you and her?"

"No."

"Listen, if you don't tell anyone, you'll explode. It's not good to keep your troubles inside. You've got to tell _somebody_."

"No."

"Jane—"

"_No_."

"Fine, then tell me how you feel about whatever happened."

"No. What are you trying to do, psychoanalyze me?"

"I thought that was Kel's job."

"Yes, she's quite the psychiatrist, isn't she? She can understand everyone's problems except mine! She could at least say—"

She stopped and looked suspiciously at Liam.

"I'm not going to tell anybody," he said. "Keep going."

She sighed. "If you spill the beans to anyone, I'll remove your head with a muggle chainsaw."

"Fine with me."

She took a deep breath, then plodded on. "She could at least say, 'I can't tell you' instead of going all 'it's none of your business, you already know my answer, I have a big log up my ass!'"

Liam raised a brow. "She's got a log up her arse?"

"From the way she's been acting, probably yes!"

"I don't think a log would fit in there."

_"Liam!"_

"Okay, start from the beginning. Tell me everything. What happened?"

And so Jane told Liam everything from when Kel had come back late from her detention with her homework unfinished to their argument in the halls.

"And then she says, 'You already know my answer on that, so quit making a scene' as if it's all my fault! _What is her problem?_"

"I'd say it's either PMS or she just doesn't want to tell anyone."

"She doesn't get PMS."

"Okay, a little too much information there, lass. When I said tell me everything, I didn't mean _everything_."

Jane laughed. "Oh come on! It's just a bodily function! It would be the same if I bled out of my elbow every month!"

"No it wouldn't."

"Yes it would!"

"No."

"What is so bad about blood coming out of a woman's—"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR—"

Liam's extremely loud proclamation of deafness was ended when Jane hit him with her bag.

"Ow!"

"Enough of that. What do you think I should do?"

"About wha—ooooh. I think you should talk to her about it. Tell her how you feel. Include the log comment if you like." He glanced at his watch, then jumped up. "Great Merlin, I've got to run! I told John I'd meet him at the Quiddich pitch to practice—I'll see you around, Jane!" And then he ran out of the common room.

Jane opened her mouth to reply, then, realizing that Liam was no longer next to her, closed it. She scowled at the common entrance, shoved her finished homework into her bag, and trouped up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.

The next Tuesday, Kel trudged wearily down to the dungeons for her visitation with Nesheni. The past five days had not been good. Jane was still ignoring her, choosing to hang out with Liam McNevin instead. John had taken to following Cho Chang-perhaps he fancied her again—and Cho would have snogged the Giant Squid rather than be within five feet of Kel. Kel didn't blame her. She _had_ freaked Cho out many times in the past. And, of course, there was always the fact that Kel rather disapproved of Cho Chang. She didn't like the way Cho played with peoples' emotions, especially with males. During breaks and meals she would sit by Luna Lovegood, but they were in different years, so in class, Kel was all alone. Her last Transfiguration essay had come back to her with only a moderate grade, and to top it all off, she couldn't master the Penna Subnascor Charm.

At last she got to the door of the Potions Classroom. Fixing her face into an apathetic expression, she raised her fist and knocked on the door.

"Enter," the cold voice of the Potions Master said.

Steeling herself, she obeyed.

Professor Snape sat at his desk, scribbling across an essay on the correct use of hellebore. "The dragon is waiting in her room, Khelekkir," he said without looking up.

Without a word, Kel went through the now unlocked door to Snape's chambers and to the spare room in which Nesheni now lived.

"Heya Kel," Nesheni said wearily. She was lying on her bed of fluffy pillows, which now had several small rips in it from her claws.

"What's wrong?" Kel asked, equally weary.

"There are a bunch of rips in my pillows. And Snape won't let me drink any more of his coffee!"

"Good."

"No, it's not good! I _like_ coffee!"

"Yeah, but we don'tlike it when you drink coffee."

"Why?"

"Because you drive us nuts when you do."

Nesheni grumbled in response.

"And as for your pillows..." Kel drew her wand from her inside pocket, pointed it at a pillow, and said, "Reparo!"

The rips closed up seamlessly. She closed up each of the pillows, then put her wand away.

After she put her wand away, she started fluffing each of the pillows in turn. After a while, she looked up to see Nesheni looking at her shrewdly. "What?" she asked.

"That's not the only magic you have."

The pillow she was holding dropped from her hands, landing on top of its fellows. "_What?"_

"You heard me."

"What makes you think that?" she asked cautiously.

"Don't pretend you don't know. I can smell your surprise. And..." the dragon sniffed. "...fear."

It was true. Kelenariel was afraid. Afraid that Nesheni would find out her secret—the secret Jane shared. No one knew, not even Dumbledore—or so they thought.

"What makes you think that I...have more magic?"

"Don't be so stupid. I can sense it—I have magic too, don't I?"

Kel stared at her. "What do you know about this...thing I supposedly have?"

Nesheni chuckled. "Your cover-up won't work on me, dearie...and as for your question, I know nothing about it save for the fact that it's there. And that it's very elusive. Not even Severus knows it exists, and he's very sensitive to this stuff. He has this thing called occlumency he does—I heard him and Dumbledore talking about it."

"You're calling _me_ dearie? I'm older than you, man! According to dragon standards, you're only a baby—you can't even breath fire yet! And as for calling Snape Severus—"

"You're skipping off the point. Now what's this thing you have?"

"I'm not gonna answer any question about it."

"I am interested to know what _it_ is."

"Very well, I am not going to _tell_ you anything about it. Whatever it is."

"If I find out nothing about it from you, I will alert Severus and Dumbledore to the fact that it is there. And then you'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble."

Kel gave her an icy glare. "That's a really low blow."

"Does it look like I care?"

Kel sighed. She was tired of keeping secrets. Keeping secrets was what got her into the mess with Jane in the first place.

"If you tell me, I won't tell anyone," Nesheni prodded.

"Fine."

She was silent for a moment.

"Well? Start!"

Kel took a deep breath. "It's kind of hard to explain," she said. "I haven't really told anyone before. Except Jane, and she has it too."

"Okay, get on with it."

"Well, my friend Jane and I have this...power...man, that sounds so lame..."

"Keep going."

"Only it's not in our bodies...it's in our minds...let me explain better. You know those muggle superheroes? Like Superman and the X-Men?"

"Yeah. You'd be surprised what Snape keeps in his room."

_"Snape_ reads _comic books_? _Muggle_ comic books?"

"Yup. He likes Jean Grey. Oh wait...I wasn't supposed to tell you that..."

"Alright, I won't tell him I know. Anyway, these superheroes...all their powers come from their bodies. Superman's an alien with superpowers, and the X-Men have mutated DNA," Kel said. "But our powers come from our minds. You probably already know this, but there are two planes of existence we use; physical and mental. Our magic is on the mental plane. Our bodies act as passageways so the magic can go from the mental to physical plane."

She looked to Nesheni, who nodded. "It's always the same color," she added.

Kel's eyes widened. "How did you know that?"

"I see it. Every time you do magic, I see it. Yours is silver."

Kel was speechless.

"You also have this faint silver aura around you. Only a magical creature could see your type of magic, and only a really sensitive human could sense it at all. Like I said, it's really subtle."

Kel laughed weakly. "Well, that about wraps it up. Jane's is red. If you seen any specks of red on me, it's because she blasted me with a spell."

"She blasted you with a spell, eh? I like this Jane already. Maybe you could get her to visit?"

"Maybe, if she still wants to talk to me." There was a touch of bitterness in her tone.

"Why wouldn't she want to talk to you?," Nesheni inquiered

"She's upset because I wouldn't tell her about you."

"She your best mate?"

"Yeah, or she was, "Kel sighed sullenly.

"Well I'd say she has the right of it, what with you being her best mate and not telling her something." Nesheni speculated.

"Wait a sec, I'm only keeping this from Jane so you can be safe here. And now you're telling me to tell her all about you? This is all for your sake"

"Well do you trust her."

"Dumbledore doesn't seem to"

"That isn't what I asked. Do you trust her?"

"Yes," Kel managed.

"Then tell her. I wouldn't tell Dumbledore that you told her."

Kel looked around cautiously and lowered her voice to a whisper "Snape might be hearing this..."

Nesheni whispered back "Then say something to throw him off."

Kel nodded and proclaimed loudly "No, I am not telling Jane. I'm keeping this secret so that you can remain protected!" She passed Nesheni a wide grin.

"Anyway, maybe I could demand to see her."

"Somehow I doubt that that would work. They won't give you _everything_ you ask for."

"Good point there...maybe you could sneak her in."

"It's possible."

"You're not keen on the idea, are you?"

"No."

At that point Professor Snape came down the stairs. "Khelekkir, it's time to go back to your dormitory. "Dra—Nesheni, Hagrid will be here any minute to clean your teeth."

Kel got up and walked toward the door. When she was certain that Snape couldn't see her but Nesheni could, she mouthed, "Jean Grey!" at her, then left before she burst out laughing.

(**A/N:** Alright, here's your update! Now you finally know what the 'special thing' is! Chapter 6 is probably going to be much shorter than this. And before I send this to my editor to edit, I have to ask you guys: **Do any of you know where the Ravenclaw common room is?** I'm getting tired of typing 'the entrance to the common room' instead of 'the portrait hole'(Gryffindors use this) or 'the wall'(Slytherins use this) or whatever they use for their doorway. If no one knows, I'll just make it up based on what hints the book gives me. Mwahaha....Jean Grey....Thank you for reading!) Can anyone guess who Theo is? We'll see...

(Editors note: I've got...nothing to say..Oh well, we're all just monkeys in a barrel, right? Right, the voices in my head confirm solemnly.


	6. The Visit And Dead Meat

**Disclaimer: **The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

Since doesn't seem to be taking double spaces anymore, I'm going to be indicating changing of scenes with these symbols: in between the scenes.

And now for answers to reviews! Yay, I got reviews! Happy happy joy joy!

**Stephie**:I'm glad to know my story hooked you. Yay!

**Jgalttuhs**:Oh man I didn't mean to make Liam act/be like you! LOL!!! He just turned out that way! And as for your comment about him and Jane...you're on the right track...that's all I'm gonna say 'til later....

**To lame for a name**: Greetings, Strudel-lover. Glad to know the story's entertaining. I love reviews like yours, they keep me going. CCDE is Caffeine Crazed Dragons of Earth, right? Haha!

**Swordsrock**: Hee heee! Caffeine crazed Nesheni.... Take a look at the Strudel Lover's review!

Chapter 6: _The Visit and Dead Meat_

"Go on, ask her to tell," Liam urged, with, as always, a mischievous grin on his face. "What's the worst that could happen? No, don't answer me. Just go."

Jane sighed resignedly. "Wish me luck," she said. She turned to go, then whirled back around and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Thanks," she said. As she hurried away, she could've sworn she saw him punch a fist in the air in jubilation, but pushed it out of her mind and concentrated on the task at hand.

At last, after dodging a bunch of boys spraying each other with their cologne, she reached her destination across the common room: a dark-haired girl sitting by herself, marking her paper resolutely.

"Kel?"

Kel turned around. She seemed to struggle with some inner decision, then said politely, "Hello." Her left eye twitched in a Snape-like fashion, betraying her true feelings toward Jane.

"I want to know what it is that you won't tell me," Jane said without preamble. She didn't want to play the social game. "I also want to know where you've been going twice a week. Yes, I noticed you were gone on Tuesday and Thursday last week, and Tuesday again this week. And don't tell me you went running. If you went running on Tuesday, which happened to be the day it rained out Liam and John's quiddich practice, the I'll go out with Ron Weasley." She shuddered at the thought.

Kel seemed to go through another inner struggle, then opened her mouth to speak.

"I'm only telling you this because I was asked to by...by the person whose secret I'm supposed to hide," she said quietly. Jane noticed she barely moved her lips.

To put it mildly, Jane's interest was piqued.

"I can't tell you; I'm bound by my word not to do so. However, you can find out for yourself."

"Well I'd want to make sure you weren't sneaking off to the greenhouses to mutate the DNA of horklumps," Jane said. "Go on."

"What _is _it with you and horklumps? Anyway, you _could_ follow me when I go to the place I visit twice a week, using...ahem...you know...to make yourself invisible," she said, referring to the powers they had. "But you won't do that, right?" As she said this, she gave Jane two very small but obvious winks.

"Of course I won't," Jane replied, catching on and giving a wink of her own.

"Excellent. Now get Liam over here and help me make up something tragic for Trelawney. She'll never know it's fake. Yes, I know you're friends with Liam now. And yes, I approve of him for a significant other. He seems to like you."

Jane gasped, grabbed the cologne bottle out of a nearby boy's hand, and sprayed her with it.

Liam, sensing things were now alright between them, headed over in time to hear Jane say, "Hey, that ink spot looks like a crumple horned snorkack!"

Kel was walking to the dungeons on Thursday night when something bumped her arm and said, "Oi."

"Hey Jane. What's up? You're not following me, of course." Kel said sarcastically.

"Noooooo, of _COURSE _not!" Jane whispered in the same tone. "I'm just a voice inside your head who has managed to make herself physically able, see?" She gave Kel two pokes.

"Okay, as far as I know, you're invisible and going the same way I am for your own pleasure. If you get caught, I know nothing."

"Deal."

They traveled in silence for a moment, then—

"Ow!"

"Shush, Jane, people might hear you!" Kel whispered.

"It's hard to shush when someone as heavy as you steps on my foot!" Jane replied more quietly.

"Well how can I avoid stepping on your foot if I can't see you? And why's Cadaver following us?!?"

"Good question. Oi! Cadaver! Go back to the common room!"

Cadaver squawked and flew off through a different corridor.

"Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"The...thing you're about to see...it will be very surprising. Try not to make a sound. Oh and you're not here. Got it?"

"Got it."

Finally, they reached the door. Kel raised her fist and knocked on it.

"Enter," came the voice of the Potions Master.

Kel entered and left the door open behind her. A slight breeze by her arm told her that Jane had passed through.

"Close the door, Khelekkir."

Kel obeyed.

Snape looked at her inscrutably, then said, "Well you know where she is. Go."

Kel left the door to Snape's rooms wide open, as usual, because Snape always insisted that it stay so. Kel and Nesheni knew that it was because he felt obligated to supervise them, as was his job as a teacher. She hoped Jane knew that too.

She realized that Jane did not know when she saw the door begin to close. Hurriedly, she pushed it open again and sent a warning look to where she thought Jane was standing.

Thankfully, Snape didn't notice, as he was bent on the essays he was correcting. She could hear the scratching of the quill against the parchment as she led Jane down the hallway and through the door that opened into Nesheni's room.

The young dragoness sat back on her haunches and put her fore claws up on the room bars as the room door unclinked. Jane concealed a gasp.

"Who else is here, Kel? I can smell someone." The scratching of Snape's quill stopped abruptly, making her stomach turn to ice.

"Oh the guys were fooling around with cologne in the common room and some of it—" she sneezed—"got on me." She heard Jane sigh with relief at the cover-up. To make it more believable, she muttered, "Stupid John."

They heard Snape snort disbelievingly, but Nesheni caught the drift. "Yes okay. Stupid boys," she said. She curled up on a big cushion. "Anyway, how are you?"

Kel yawned. "Tired," she said. "You?"

Nesheni picked her claws. "Tired," she agreed, "and in need of a bath."

"I though Hagrid came to clean you up yesterday?"

"He cancelled on us. His dog took sick and couldn't be left alone. Imean I don't smell, dragons generally don't, but I will pretty soon if I don't get this meat off my teeth and my claws.

"Hmmm.....Maybe this will help." She took out her wand. Nesheni looked up intently, coppery eyes glinting. Kel pointed her wand at Nesheni and cried, "Scourgify!"

"Thank you. I feel much cleaner," Nesheni said. "Anyway, how was your day?"

"I had Divination. 'Nough said."

"I thought Divination was one of your best subjects?" Nesheni asked. Kel had told her all about the school and the people in it.

"It is, but with Trelawney there..."

"Ugh. Point taken." She grimaced.

"Yeah. So what's up with you?"

"Oh nothing, I've just been locked up in here by SOME people who are too lazy to take me outside!!!" she said, loud enough for Snape to hear her from the other room.

Kel heard Jane snicker from behind her and smiled.

Nesheni yawned and rolled around on her back like a kitten, then spoke as if Snape wasn't there to hear it. "I mean really, Dumbledore keeps TELLING Snape to rent out that book on the care of dragons, but will Severus listen? Nooo! He's lucky I can take care of myself! Otherwise he would get killed or I, the poor dragon, would die. Honestly, what a meat head!!!"

Kel had to turn her laugh into a strange, hacking cough. From the sounds next to her, she guessed that Jane had stuffed her fist into her mouth to muffle her own laughter.

Kel coughed again. "--damn cologne, still making me—" she sneezed. "--cough and sneeze—" She sneezed again.  
Nesheni let out a high pitched laugh. "Yes, cologne...hard on the lungs..."

"--especially _John's_ cologne--ugh!" Again, she sneezed and wiped her eyes. "I'm gonna get John for that.....what were we talking about?"

"Oh, I don't know...that cologne...what's it called?" she jerked her head at where Jane was standing.

"Oh...it was some lame-ass name like Jane's Passion-fruit Paradise."

The dragoness snickered loudly. "Yes, they do have horrible taste in names, don't they? The cologne itself smells alright though," she said. Jane had a feeling they were talking about her, not the cologne the boys had been spraying around. Then, as a cover-up, Nesheni added, "Too much of it though. What were they doing spraying that stuff around anyway?"

"Cologne wars. One guy ticks off another, who ticks him off back, who goes upstairs, gets his cologne, comes back down again, and sprays it in the other guy's face. The guy who got sprayed gets mad, goes upstairs, gets _his _cologne, and tries to spray it back, but misses and gets someone else. That someone else gets mad, retrieves _his_ cologne, and sprays the dude who sprayed him, who sprays the guy who started it in the first place. Other guys see it, think it's funny, and, guys being the _stupid_ creatures they are, go upstairs, get their cologne and start spraying every male in the room randomly for no reason whatsoever while the girls watch on, shake their heads at male stupidity, and finish their homework while the guys waste their time on pointless, cologne-wasting war!"

Nesheni cocked her head. "Are all males that stupid? I've only met two: Snape and Dumbledore."

"Most of them. There _are_ exceptions though...like Dumbledore, for one, and Liam...he didn't participate in cologne wars. Liam's pretty smart, actually." A wicked grin spread across her face. "He'd make a great match for Jane."

Nesheni smiled absently, staring at a place by her shoulder. "There's a speck of red by your shoulder," she said quietly, so Snape couldn't hear her.

Kel whirled around, but saw nothing. "_Jane!_" she hissed. "Stop that!" She looked towards the door, then whispered, "They can't know you're here!"

She heard Jane sigh. "Fine, fine," she whispered back. "I'll get you back for the Liam comment when this is over with."

"The speck is gone now," Nesheni informed her in the same quiet tone.

"Good," Kel answered.

"So...the guys gonna play cologne wars every day?" Nesheni asked. She tilted her head slightly toward where Jane was standing so Kel could understand the coding in her words.

"Nah," Kel answered. "It would be too wasteful of their cologne." She looked towards the door, then whispered, "Besides, it's too risky to bring her every visit."

Nesheni nodded.

At that point they heard the footsteps of Professor Snape and the swishing of his black robe as he came down the hallway. As he came through the door, he said, "I believe it is time for you to go now, Khelekkir."

And as always, Kel left with only a wave at Nesheni, no words spoken.

Jane stared at her. "Okay a super intelligent dragon? Pffft. That is one messed up horklump." As she said this, she winked slightly.

Kel laughed, then looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"I KNEW you were mutating horklumps...." Jane muttered.

"Okay remember I had to do that detention with Snape? When he caught me just wandering around after curfew? The night I couldn't sleep--" she looked around again "—because of the hum."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well I was scrubbing cauldrons when I saw this thing flash out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was just an optical illusion. Snape saw that I was staring off into space and said—" she imitated his accent and scowl here "'—get back to work, Khelekkir.'" Jane giggled. "So I went back to scrubbing when we heard this noise like nails on a chalkboard." She shuddered. "So he asked why I was staring off into space earlier and I said that I saw something. He shrugged it off, told me to get back to work, etcetera, etcetera, so I did. Then I saw this big black thing just jump across the room, so I told him, and he tried to stun it. It jumped away, I tried to catch it, I failed because...why did I fail again?...I don't know...anyway, I failed, it went away, and he went off to his meeting with Dumbledore and said to stun it with my wand if I saw it again. So I just continued happily scrubbing—" Jane snorted. "—and I finish scrubbing all except one. So I'm about to go to that one when I hear this clicking, look up, and see this baby dragon standing in the last cauldron with a runespoor egg."

"A RUNESPOOR EGG?" Jane exclaimed. A few people turned around to look at her, and she quieted down. "He left a _runespoor_ egg in a cauldron? Wow, those things are rare. Snape just keeps getting smarter and smarter every year, doesn't he?"

Kel snickered.

"So lemme guess," Jane continued. "Nesheni eats the egg, becomes super-smart, and is locked away by Snape--and Dumbledore, I guess-- so she doesn't escape and wreak havoc upon the world. Why don't they just give her to Hagrid? Wait...Hagrid lives in a wooden hut..."

"Pretty much. _And_ they want to keep her a secret from the Ministry..." she pronounced the word "ministry" with the tone of dislike.

"Ah. Right. _Minister_ Fudge. Uck."

"Heh heh. Yeah. Oh and I think Nesheni ate more than one egg. There were a whole bunch of eggshell shards when Snape knocked the cauldron over trying to catch her.

"Shards? Nah, I don't think that was Nesheni's doing. Snape just got high...and that made him hungry...so he ate the other eggs and forgot. That's all."

Kel burst out laughing, causing the whole common room to look at her.

"BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Snape getting high...that's a funny thought...maybe he took the words to our songs to heart, eh?"

"Yeah, but..." Jane pitched her voice to an almost inaudible tone. "Nesheni was awesome!"

"I know, isn't she great?"

"Yes, but a dragon shouldn't be cooped up like that...why can't they just let her go?"

"She's too smart. Ate too many eggs. She has human level intelligence now. They _can't_ let her go."

"Well yeah, but...oh...Peruvian viper tooth mix, right?"

"I'd assume so. She said something about having venomous fangs."

"Peruvian Vipertooth and Norwegian Ridgeback...yah...so she's already dangerous enough without the eggs. Has a taste for human. AND she's highly venomous." Jane, being an expert in Care of Magical Creatures, knew all the dragon breeds by heart.

"Yup. So to make a long story short, she eats a bunch of runespoor eggs and says that she won't cooperate unless I visit her. So that's how _I_ got involved in this. _And_ she's very magical. Like," she looked around yet again and whispered, "she can see our magic."

Jane nearly jumped out of her seat. "_WHAT?_" she hissed.

"It's true. She saw it and told me that if I didn't explain she would spill the beans to Dumbledore and Snape. So I told her to protect our secret. She won't tell anyone now that she knows though."

"So that's why she told you about the red speck. I was going to give you a stinging hex. Anyway, they can't keep her here forever. I mean, I'm sure it would just _kill_ Snape to give her up, but they have to do it sometime."

"They should, but the only people who know about her are Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid, me, and now you, but they don't know about you. I live in a dormitory; I can't take care of a smart dragon! And Dumbledore doesn't want her, so he dumps her on Snape. And Snape goes all lazy-ass and doesn't give her a bath.

"Jeez. So what's he gonna do when the little angel gets older, AND smarter??"

"I really don't know. It worries me. Not to mention the fact that if the Ministry finds out..." She moved a finger across her throat.

Jane nodded fervently. "Yeah, dead meat."

**(A/N: **Okay, not as short as I thought it would be. Six pages. Meh. Normally it's seven or eight. Chapter 4 was eleven pages. My internet's not working right now and the editor is nowhere to be found, so it might be awhile before I can post this. I might even have to print it out and retype it at a friend's house!!! Retyping six pages! Oh, the horror! ;-) Oh well, I've retyped five pages before, I can do six. But then it might take even longer to post. :-( Okay once again, I have to ask: **Does anyone know where the Ravenclaw common room is???????** If I get to a part where I need to say exactly where it is and I don't get an answer from all ye reviewers, I'll have to make it up based on the clues from the book. Oh and did anyone catch the hint I left about Kel's bloodline in Chapter 4? It's at near the end of the chapter...think conversation in corridor...anyway, I forgot to put the thing about the hint in the author's notes of Chapters 4 and 5, so I'm putting it in here. Reviews! Please send a review! Thank you!


	7. Blackmail And A Diary

**Disclaimer: **The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

**Important note: **The events of Kelenariel Khelekkir's life are **not** based on the events of mine. The only similarity is the way she got her scar. Nothing more. I have two living parents, don't worry! Same goes for Jane and kichikitsune.

**Another important note: **This chapter has some bad language in it. As in the F word, the S word, etc. Also a reference to sado-masochistic sex...so if you don't like any of that, don't read. I'll give you a summary in the next chapter if you choose to skip this one because of bad language.

Chapter 7: _Blackmail And A Diary_

Jane awoke in the dark of the dormitory some days later with her magical senses ringing and checked her watch. 6:45 AM. _Something's wrong,_ she realized. _Something that has to be stopped._

She walked over to Kel's bed and pulled the curtain back. Her friend's eyebrows were drawn together in a troubled expression, and the corners of her mouth were turned down in a frown. Jane shook her. "Kel..._Kel_...wake up."

Kel did wake up. "What?"

"Something's wrong."

Kel's eyes closed for a moment, then flashed open again. "Nesheni," she muttered.

"How do you know?"

"Dream."

"Ah."

This had happened many times before. In their second year, shortly before Harry Potter had saved the Sorcerer's Stone, Kel had awoken saying something big would happen in the school, soon. All through their third year, when the Chamber of Secrets was being opened, Kel and Jane had been plagued with insomnia. And the night of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, a few hours before Voldemort had come back....Kel had been hysterical with worry then.

Jane's attention turned from those memories to Kel when her friend said, "She's going to try to break out of the dungeons." Her face clouded. "Damn it! Why does this always happen to me?!?"

Jane stared at her. _Excuse me?_

"I did nothing to deserve any of this shit!" Kel raged. "First I'm born with a tumor on my freakin' face. And of course, I'm muggle born, so I get it cut off the painful muggle way! But nooo, an achy face isn't enough! I get a big ugly scar too! On my _face, _ruining every chance I _might _have had of getting a freakin' date! But that's not all! My parents croak, I go to live with their best friend, who also croaks, and then I get stuck with their alcoholic first cousin! _Then _I get landed with a talking dragon with a caffeine addiction! _And _she goes and tries to escape!!!"

Jane had had enough. "God damn it, I HATE it when you do this! These are two of your big faults: you complain nonstop and wallow in self pity! This isn't gonna help you one bit, so quit whining and fucking do something!!! You're going on about your damn scar on your face when some people don't even _have _faces! Think muggle cancer patients. Then you diss Nesheni. Nesheni's cooler than you when you're in this state, so shut your trap about her! And _then_ you complain that your parents died. At least your parents were good enough that you mourn them. _You _have happy memories of your mum and dad. _My _mum and dad are drunkards! I'd rather have dead good parents than the bad live ones I have now! Good Lord, you're acting like a freakin' three year old!!! _And _wasting our time!!!"

Silence followed this sally in which Jane looked angry and Kel looked embarrassed. Finally, Kel muttered, "Sorry."

"You better be," Jane snapped angrily. "Now let's get down to the dungeons."

She turned to go, but Kel stopped her. "Wait. We're still wearing our pajamas. Not to mention that it's gonna look suspicious to Snape if we both come along and say that Nesheni's breaking out, since as far as he knows, you _don't_ know."

"Then don't tell him it's Nesheni. Say...uh...something bad's gonna happen in the dungeon. That's it."

"He'll think we're playing a joke on him."

"Then it's his own fault if he doesn't believe us."

"Remember, you don't know."

"I _know _thatDon't worry, I'll act all scared if she shows herself, _if_ she shows herself. She knows about the Ministry, doesn't she?"

"I hope so."

"Okay. Let's get dressed and go!"

A few minutes later, Jane and Kel stood in front of the door to the Potions classroom. "Knock," Jane said.

Kel took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

They heard some rustling from inside, then the door opened to show the dour Potions Master. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a sneering tone.

From behind him, they heard a cackle. Apparently, he didn't, for he kept glaring at them down his hooked nose.

"Something bad is going to happen in this dungeon very soon," Kel said. "And by very soon, I mean in a few minutes, maybe less." She glanced at Jane, then mouthed soundlessly to Snape, "Nesheni!"

His eyes narrowed. "How do you know this?"

Jane exhaled slowly. She had forgotten all about this part. How was he going to react when Kel told him?

Kel seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because she answered in a cautious tone. "I saw it...in a dream."

Professor Snape raised a brow. "You had a dream that something..._bad_ would happen in my dungeon," he repeated. "A _dream _is a legitimate reason for you to interrupt what I am doing at this time?"

Jane clenched her teeth. _She has to tell him. Damn it—she's kept it from everyone for so long, though I don't know why. _

Kel muttered something under her breath. It sounded like "Imuhsear."

"Your words are incomprehensible if you say them with your mouth shut, Khelekkir."

Kel looked at the ceiling. "I'm a seer," she pronounced.

Professor Snape stepped back. "_What?_"

"_I'M A SEER,_" she repeated loudly. "I dream stuff and it comes true. And I dreamed that a scaly black creature would wreak havoc in the castle," she said with a not-so-subtle hint.

"How do you know this is a prophetic dream?"

"I only remember the stupid dreams and the prophetic dreams," Kel said impatiently. "Are you going to heed my warning or not?"

Jane suppressed a snicker.

"And why should I believe this warning you give me?"

"If you think this is some stupid joke, you're wrong," Jane said suddenly. "This has happened before. If she says there's some creature in your room wrecking your stuff, she means it."

Snape opened his mouth to reply, then—

A loud cackle sounded from behind him.

Snape whirled around.

Jane, remembering to act surprised, shrieked. "AHHH! It's a d-dragon!!"

Kel paled.

"What the—get back inside!" Snape barked.

"Why should I? _You_ left it unlocked. Lazy little bastard. You should o' gotten that book." With that, she slid over to Kel and Jane. "Hey again!"

Jane played the part of terrified teenage female very well. "O-oh m-my g-g-g-God, Kel, w-what is t-that?" she asked in a very high, squeaky voice, giving Nesheni a very small, very inconspicuous wink.

"I'm Nesheni!" Nesheni proclaimed cheerfully, returning her wink. "I ate a whole bunch of runespoor eggs and became as smart as you humans. You must be Jane, Kel's told me all about you. Nice to meet you."

"N-nice t-to meet you t-too," Jane stuttered in a frightened manner. All the time she played this part, she was suppressing hysterical bouts of laughter.

Nesheni snickered evilly. "So...how are you two this fine morning?"

"Um...Nesheni?" Kel said in a light-headed tone. "I think you should go back in." She looked around wildly. "Quick! Before someone sees you!"

"But...I hate it in there!" Nesheni cried vehemently.

Kel seemed at loss for words.

"I want out o' that hell hole. So let's go explore the rest of the castle, Jane, Kel!"

"But....but....we have class! And homework! And risk of detention with Filch!!!!!" Kel found her voice again.

"Not to mention the Ministry..." Jane muttered.

"You know what the Ministry is, right?" Jane asked. She

figured she didn't need to stutter anymore.

Nesheni nodded vaguely. "Yes, sort of...isn't it a pile of shit a mile high with little cheating fat men sitting on top? I hear Snape and Dumbledore talking..."

Snape looked embarrassed.

Jane snickered.

"Well, yes, that's true, but they're also our government! And it's against the law for you to be here!" Kel reasoned.

"Fine...I can always go around and find out things on my own, you know...like...what does this potion do?"

And before they could stop her, Nesheni ran down the corridor.

"Oh no...that corridor leads to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom..." Kel muttered.

And then one thought flashed through their heads and out their mouths. "Umbridge!"

Dolores Umbridge was sitting in her fluffy, pink room brushing her mousy brown hair. She hummed cheerfully as she slipped on her disgusting pink cardigan and set her black bow upon her head. "What shall I do today?" she said out loud as she picked up her clipboard and looked at the schedule clipped to it. "Let's see...I've got Lee Jordan over for detention at eight...shouldn't have cheeked me in class, that boy...I'll make sure his punishment is painful...ooh, I love seeing the students in pain, mwahaha...ah, let's see, what else...I have a block of free time at seven. Maybe I'll write in my diary. Then I can go pick on the Gryffindors! Gryffindors are fun to pick on, especially Potter..." she giggled. "Ooh, the look on his face when I pulled him off the quiddich team was priceless...oh...a staff meeting! I can annoy Minerva! Oh, that woman has it coming to her...how dare she stand in the way of Dolores Umbridge! And then I can—what was that?"

She had just seen a flash of black out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look, nothing was there. "It must be my imagination," she said out loud. "Where was I? Oh yes, Minerva McGonagall—I have to get her back for ruining my inspection of her fifth-year class...and then I must write to Cornelius...I miss him so...and we have to try out those handcuffs..."

She gave her hair one last brush, settled her black bow more steadily, then tucked her clipboard under her arm and opened her door.

When she saw what was on the other side of the door, she dropped her clipboard in surprise.

Jane and Kel bolted after Nesheni. _Shit, shit, shit! What if Umbridge sees her? What'll happen? And what the hell is Nesheni thinking, bolting like that?!? She better not show herself!_

Up stairs, through secret passageways, and through corridors they ran, Jane ahead of Kel. Jane looked behind to see Kel lagging. _Now she'll listen to me when I tell her to exercise,_ Jane thought.

They were about to turn the corner when they heard something that stopped them in their tracks.

"It's a dragon!" someone shrieked. Somebody with a high pitched, silvery voice...

Dolores Umbridge had found Nesheni.

Dolores's hand gripped her wand tight as the creature before her studied her. Then it opened its mouth and....

....spoke. "Yes, I'm a dragon. That come as a big surprise to you?"

Dolores narrowed her eyes. "A talking dragon...I can get Dumbledore in trouble for this. Tell me, how did he do it? What charm did he use? Or did he feed you something to make you talk?"

"I'm not telling you, no matter how many threats you make."

"Oh? What if I tell Minister Fudge? He'll have you shipped out of here before you know it. He has that power, you know."

"We'll see."

"Okay, we'll go out there, pretend we don't know Nesheni, then Stun the toad and take her to Dumbledore to erase her memory, since neither of us has mastered the Memory Charm," Kel whispered.

"No, one of us should run out there, point at Nesheni and scream while the other one runs out invisible and Stuns Umbridge," Jane whispered back.

"Good idea. I'll be invisible."

"No, you have horrible aim, _I'll _be invisible. You get to be the drama queen this time."

"Fine. Now do the spell."

Jane closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic; the little red ball of flame that sat in her mind. She called it out, willed it to cover her in a shroud of invisibility, to trick the eyes into believing she wasn't there. When she thought she was done, she asked, "Am I fully disappeared?"

"Yeah. I'm going out now."

She watched Kel saunter out into the corridor, humming, then followed. _Okay, you're a sixteen-year-old scared shitless. Do your thing, _she thought at her.

Kel looked up, saw Nesheni, and screamed.

Severus ran toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, thinking, _Damn that dragon for causing all this trouble! She got a warning from Dumbledore about this and agreed to stay inside! And now she's running amok around the castle! _

He turned the corner into the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor in time to see (and hear) what was happening.

"Oh my God, it's a dragon! AAAAAH!!!!!!!!" Khelekkir screamed. She pointed a shaking finger at Nesheni, her currently dark orange eyes wide in terror.

_She's faking it,_ he realized. _She and Dumont must have some kind of plan. I had better follow suit._

He pointed a long finger at Nesheni as well. "What in the name of Merlin is an infant dragon doing here?!?" he exclaimed.

Nesheni shook her head. "Stupid humans," she said. She turned her head to Umbridge. "You were saying your Fudge could ship me off somewhere. But that's only if you tell him." She grinned, showing a great number of shiny, sharp teeth. "And I have a reason for you not to."

"And what is that?" Umbridge spoke in a deadly whisper.

Nesheni's grin became, if possible, even wider as she pulled a pink leather-bound book from behind her back.

Umbridge's mouth dropped open and her eyes bulged. "My diary," she said in a hoarse whisper.

Jane nearly lost control of the invisibility spell. Umbridge's diary? She couldn't Stun Umbridge yet, she had to see this first!

Nesheni looked at it with interest. "Ooh, a _diary_," she said excitedly. "I didn't actually know what it was. I can blackmail one of these humans pointing at me to read it out loud." She looked at Kel. "If you don't read this diary out loud, I'll leap at you and bite your head off."

"Oh surely you don't want to read my boring, uneventful diary!" Umbridge said with a silvery laugh and a sickening, toad-like smile.

Kel looked unconvincingly indecisive. "If I don't, the dragon will bite my head off," she whimpered.

Jane suppressed a bout of laughter as Kel gulped and stepped forward hesitantly, looking positively terrified. She cleared her throat, and opened to a page near the beginning.

"Dear Diary," she began in a quavering voice. "I've been stationed at Hogwarts! Oh this is great! I'm Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, which means I can give the students detention! This will be fun! What can I do to them? Hmm....there's always whipping, the care-taker did that in my day...but I wouldn't be able to do that to them personally... I could make them listen to that disgusting noise they call "punk rock" non-stop...that would be painful...but some of those disgusting children like punk rock... I know! I can make the punkers listen to classical, and the normal ones listen to punk!"

At this, Kel started coughing. Jane suspected that she was really laughing, and trying to cover it up. She didn't blame her at all, for she herself had her fist stuffed in her mouth to block the sound.

"Excuse me, I had something in my throat," Kel said. Umbridge looked very faint. Kel continued, "And while they're listening to the music they hate, I'll make them do lines! Mwahahahaha! They'll be begging for mercy...wait...that means I'll have to listen to their horrible music too...Okay, scratch that idea then...besides, I wouldn't see them in actual physical pain if I did that... I should do something that involves blood. I have to go pack now, I'll write later." Kel turned a page, then read again, "Dear Diary, I found the perfect detention idea! I was shopping in Knockturn Alley and I found this fantastic quill! When one writes with it, it cuts the words they're writing onto the hand and uses the writer's own blood to write on the parchment! It's perfect!

"I also found the perfect textbook for them to use! It doesn't teach them anything about fighting, which is what Cornelius wants. I would go over to his house now, but his wife's home...damn." Kel made a face. "Too much information there," she remarked.

Umbridge turned red.

She turned to the next entry and read, "Dear Diary, oh, if only Cornelius was here to help me...relax. Why? I just remembered that Harry Potter will be attending school. Damn it! That stupid, lying, attention-seeking prat...wait...I can give him detention and use my new quill on him! And play punk rock to drive him insane! Wait, that would drive me mad too...bloody hell..." Kel grinned and turned several pages before starting again. "Dear Diary, Potter caused an uproar in class! He was going on about how You-Know-Who was really alive and about to attack us in the school...hah! As if! So I gave him detention. I'll get to test out my quill now....MWAHAHAHAHA!" Kel wrinkled her nose. "My God, what a sadist!" she exclaimed. "Read some more!" Nesheni cried. Kel complied and opened to the middle. "Dear Diary, Cornelius is coming here for Christmas!"

"No!" Umbridge cried.

"I'm so happy! We can finally use that whip he bought last month—" Kel's face turned pale. "I did NOT want to know that!" she exclaimed. "EEEEEEW!"

_I knew it! _Jane thought triumphantly. _I KNEW Fudge and Umbridge were having sado-masochistic sex! _

Snape had turned quite green.

Kel turned to Nesheni. "I'm not reading any more, whether you bite my head off or not!" she cried.

"Fine, that's all I wanted to hear anyway." The dragoness turned to Umbridge. "So there you go. You spill the beans about me, I get one of these humans here to publish it for all to see. Deal?"

_Looks like I won't need to Stun her after all_, Jane decided.

"That's blackmail!" Umbridge cried.

"Does it look like I care? No, I didn't think so. So is it a deal?"

"If anyone finds out about this from anyone in this room," she glared at each visible person in turn, "I will alert the Ministry of your existence."

"Don't worry, they already know," Kel said cheerfully.

"W-what?" Umbridge whimpered.

"What, you think we don't notice how you talk about Fudge?" she did an imitation in a high pitched voice. "_Cornelius_ sent this..._hem hem_...Educational Decree Number Five Billion..."

Jane bit down on her fist to keep from laughing.

"It's obvious," Kel continued in her normal voice. "The students have been making up stories about you and him for a _long _time. And yes, a lot of them include whips, chains, handcuffs, etcetera. So you won't be hearing anything new even if one of us _does _tell."

"So, toad-face, is it a deal?" Nesheni prodded.

Umbridge's face contorted into many different expressions, like a chameleon trying to pick a color, until finally, she snarled, "Deal."

"Excellent," Nesheni said briskly. "Now move along, I have things to do."

Umbridge stayed where she was.

"_Move_," Nesheni growled. "I have venemous teeth, and you're looking mighty tasty right now."

At that point Snape spoke up. "If it has venemous teeth, then it must be part Peruvian Vipertooth, which means it has a taste for humans. If it threatens to eat you, I think it'll carry out its word."

After hearing this, Umbridge waddled down the hall as quickly as her fat little legs could carry her.

As soon as she was gone, Jane went to a few feet away, where no one could see her, and let go of the spell. While she was doing these things, she listened to Kel, Snape, and Nesheni's conversation.

"Nesheni! What the hell were you thinking?!?!?!" Kel hissed. "You _know _all about Umbridge, why'd you go her way? You were taking a huge risk getting her diary, which I assume was in her room! Especially since you didn't know what it was! You can't freakin' read, Nesheni! What if you had picked up her notes on the teachers instead? You wouldn't know, and then you would've pulled it out from behind your back to blackmail her with it, and it wouldn't have worked because she wouldn't care! And then Jane or I would have to Stun her and take her to Dumbledore to get her memory erased, if we succeeded in Stunning her in the first place! That was a really big gamble-"

"Where is Dumont?" Snape interrupted.

"Right here," Jane announced, stepping out from her hiding place. "I was going to Stun her from here, but I wanted to hear about the diary first."

Snape stared at her with an unbearable intensity, as if he were seeing something other than her face with his cold, black eyes. She shook her head as if to clear it, but really, she was just trying to break eye contact with the Potions Master. It seemed to work, because Snape blinked and turned to Kel and Nesheni.

"Back to my office," he ordered.

"Nesheni, you are going to be locked in your room until the Headmaster and I decide what to do with you," Snape hissed.

"Okey-dokey," Nesheni replied cheerfully. She had learned that tactic from Jane on the way back from the DADA corridor.

He then turned around. _What's he doing that for?_ Jane wondered.

"Nesheni, go to your room," he said to the wall.

"Yessir," she chirped. Scales flashing, she turned around and started to slink slowly back to her room.

Snape stood there, still. She saw his shoulders rise and fall as he took a deep breath. "Dumont," he began.

"Yes, sir?"

He suddenly spun around, wand flashing out of his pocket like a lighting bolt to point at her.

A black streak sprung from the door where it had been listening at Snape, aiming at him.

"Oblivi—ack!!!!!"

He thudded to the floor, dropping his wand as the blood gushed from the place in his leg where the dragoness had sank her teeth into it. "DAMN YOU, DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!!!" he roared.

Nesheni stood over him triumphantly, his bright red blood dripping morbidly from her fangs. "You will not erase Jane's memory, or I will bite you again."

Snape groaned in pain.

"Answer me!" Nesheni ordered, digging her claws painfully into his side.

"I—aaaah!—I—"

Jane watched in horror.

"Nesheni, stop it! He's losing blood!" Kel cried. "And look at his leg—it's swelling to unbelievable proportions—"

"Not—until—he—answers—me!" Nesheni growled.

"Nesheni, you'll kill him before he can answer! Your fangs are venemous! And we know almost nothing about that venom! It could take an hour or five minutes to act for all we know, and we don't know what it'll do when it actually does act! We need to get him to the Hospital Wing RIGHT NOW!" Kel screamed.

"I—promise—" Snape gasped.

"Finish," Nesheni snarled.

"I—won't—obliviate—Dumont—aaah—"

"Excellent," Nesheni muttered. She withdrew her claws from his flesh, leaving five deep gashes.

"Oh my God his bite is turning green!" Kel moaned. "Jane, grab his wand—I'm levitating him."

Dumont banged on the Hospital Wing door again. And again, there was no answer.

"She's gotta be awake! She _has _to be! It's only 15 minutes 'til breakfast!" Khelekkir said. There was an edge of panic creeping into her voice.

Severus supressed a groan and fixed his gaze on the door. The pain in his leg was blinding and sharp. The cold air of the castle stung the open wound, and, from the pain spreading up his leg, it seemed that the poison was taking affect.

"Kel, stop panicking and shut up. We need to figure out what to tell her when she _does _open the door." Dumont said.

At this, Severus opened his mouth and rasped, "Walk."

"What do you mean, walk? You're in no shape to walk!" Khelekkir cried.

"Kel, stop being so hysterical. Of course he doesn't want to walk. He means something else. Like...maybe he took a walk and got mauled by a forest creature."

Severus nodded.

"How does knowing he went on a walk help us? And he didn't get mauled by a forest creature, he got mauled by—"

"It's the cover story, damn it!"

"Oooooooooooh. Okay, how did we find him?"

"She doesn't need to know that. We'll just say we found him and levitated him here. And before you throw some Bible quotes about lying at me, yes, he _did _take a walk, to his dungeon anyway, and got mauled by a creature."

"Right. Nesheni _did _live in the forest before she came to us..."

Severus was getting impatient. He needed to get this poison out of his system! He opened his mouth again and croaked, "Knock."

So Dumont did knock.

And finally, the door opened to reveal a puzzled-looking witch.

"What are you doing here so early?" Madame Pomfrey asked. "And what—oh!"

"Professor Snape took a walk this morning and got mauled by a forest creature," Dumont explained. "We found him and levitated him here."

"And I have reason to believe the creature had venom," Khelekkir added. "The wound on his leg is turning green."

"Alright, alright, give him here, I'll take care of him. Thank you, girls,"

"Not a problem," Dumont said smoothly. Khelekkir levitated him to a bed, then undid the spell and stashed her wand in her inside pocket.

Severus heard the retreating footsteps of Dumont and Khelekkir, breathed in the smell of the Hospital Wing, and immediately felt calmer. He was here. He would get treated for his dragon bite. He wouldn't die and deprive the Order of a spy.

"Okay, Severus, I'm going to clean your wound. This will sting."

So much for being calm. He gritted his teeth, stared at the bland white ceiling, and prepared for the pain to follow.

"Well, I guess you'll be visiting Nesheni with me now," Kel said as they trudged back to the common room to get their bags.

"Hell yeah! There's no way I'm _not _after today! _Somebody's_ gotta look after her, and seeing as Snape isn't too good at it, it might as well be us," Jane said.

"Excellent."

At the end of the day, they were called to the Headmaster's office and told that Jane would be allowed to visit Nesheni as well.

"Poor Snape," Jane remarked.

**(A/N: **Now before you all go flame me for making Kel a seer, read my message: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT POSTING FOR TWO MONTHS!!!! My internet stopped working, and when it started working again a month later, my files were gone, and then it took another month to find them, and then I had school work, so I didn't get to finish them until now. Thank you, please review!


	8. As Time Goes By

**Disclaimer: **J.K. Rowling owns The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff. The made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni are owned by me. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

**What happened last time:** For those of you who skipped the last chapter for bad language, here's what happened: Kel had a dream that Nesheni wreaked havoc in the castle. She started feeling sorry for herself and whining like a three year old, Jane snapped her out of it by reminding her that her own past was much worse than Kel's, then they went over to Snape's to warn him. In order to convince him that they weren't kidding, they divulged a big secret—that Kel is a seer. At that point, Nesheni broke out, ran into the DADA wing, and stole Umbridge's diary. (Nesheni can't read, just so you know.) Jane turned invisible using the power that both her and Kel have while Kel distracted Umbridge by pointing at Nesheni and screaming. Jane went out invisible and was about to Stun Umbridge and take her to Dumbledore to get her memory erased when Snape showed up and Nesheni showed everyone the diary and blackmailed Kel into reading it aloud. Kel read enough to know that Umbridge was having an affair with Fudge. Then Nesheni struck a deal—Umbridge keeps quiet about her existence, and she and Kel keep quiet about the affair. Umbridge agreed and ran off. Snape led Kel, Jane, and Nesheni back to his office and tried to erase Jane's memory of Nesheni, but Nesheni stopped him by biting his leg and clawing him. She made him promise not to erase Jane's memory, and then they took him to the Hospital Wing. Later that day, Dumbledore informed them that Jane could visit Nesheni too.

Chapter 8: _As Time Goes By_

The rest of the year passed fairly fast. Nesheni grew, learned to be sarcastic from Jane, learned proper grammar and etiquette from Kel, and learned to be bitchy from Snape. Needless to say, she drove the Potions Master mad. Eventually she got over her coffee addiction, much to the relief of Kel, Jane, and Snape, and badgered poor Severus into borrowing the dragon care book from the library. Kel and Jane had been in the library at the same time, and snickered as he left the room under Madam Pince's glare.

And then of course there was Liam. Ever since he and Jane had talked in the common room, he became a full-time member of their group. They were always learning something new about him—he was an ace in Care of Magical Creatures, he didn't like to study, his favorite color was red, and he despised Pansy Parkinson. She was a regular victim to his pranks. But most of all, he liked to tease Jane. Example:

Jane was having a bad day. She had slept through breakfast, gone to class hungry, and through it all, had forgotten to brush her hair. She slipped and fell on the way to Care of Magical Creatures, getting grass stains on her robes, and the kneazle they were studying hissed and scratched her hand when she tried to scratch him behind his ears.

At the end of Transfiguration, the last class before lunch, she was, to put it lightly, pissed.

And to top it all off, when Liam saw her, he said in his endearing Irish lilt, "Gee, Jane, normally you look pretty as a black swan, but today you look like a blast-ended screwt!"

His chances at surviving her onslaught of wrath were not helped by the fact that Kel had collapsed on the floor laughing as Jane ran at him with a look of utter fury on her face.

Needless to say, Liam ended up in the Hospital Wing. He explained to Madam Pomfrey that an unusual dog had bitten him.

John was turned down yet again by Cho Chang, who was going out with Harry Potter at the time John had asked her to go with him to Hogsmeade. Kel, Jane, and Liam all sat through his rant against Harry Potter and his attention-seeking ways. Their conversation went something like this:

John Dewaro: And then she says, "Oh I'm already going out with Harry Potter. Sorry." What business does Potter have asking her out?

Jane Dumont: Maybe because he likes her _too?_

John: But—

Kelenariel Khelekkir: Listen John, just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.

John: But Potter—

Jane: You wouldn't be so angry if it was Liam or somebody asking her out.

John: Yeah exactly! Potter thinks he's so big because he's famous—

Kel: That's just the _Prophet_ feeding you lies.

John: You just believe Potter because you don't like Fudge!

Jane: Yeah because he's a lying piece of sh—

Kel: _And _he takes bribes from the likes of Lucius Malfoy—

Liam McNevin: Now hold on there, Kel. You don't know that Malfoy's giving bribes—

Kel: Remember in the third year when Dumbledore was suspended from the school? The official story was that he couldn't take care of all that Chamber of Secrets business so they took him out, but I heard Dumbledore talking to McGonagall when he came back and he said that Malfoy blackmailed the school governors, _and _he got kicked off the board for doing so.

Liam: That was three years ago, and—

John: You and your stupid government conspiracy theories. Stop talking about politics! Potter's crazy! He wants the entire spotlight, so he goes and saves the Sorcerer's Stone from You-Know-Who, _and then_ he goes and saves the Weasley girl from the Chamber of Secrets in his second year! And remember the dueling club? He set that snake on Finch-Fletchley—

Jane: You don't know what he was telling that snake. He could've said, "Hey man, Snape's hair is looking extra greasy today, eh?"

John: That doesn't matter! He did it for attention! And—

Liam: How would you know? Apparently he claimed that he was telling the snake to back off!

John: You've only got his word and the word of his two cronies on that! Then last year he becomes the fourth Triwizard champion. The _fourth!_ That is NOT fair! No one's done that before! I bet he got an older student to do it for him!

Kel: You might be right about the older student, but if he did do that, then he couldn't have hoodwinked the Goblet of Fire to think he was from a fourth school. And the older student wouldn't have been able to do it either! That's really powerful magic.

Jane: And Granger is _not _a crony! She's really smart! She should've been in Ravenclaw; she's smarter than _you _surely—

John: If she was smarter than me she wouldn't be hanging around Potter!

Liam: If you were as smart as her you wouldn't be making all these ungrounded accusations!

John: Enough about Granger! Then comes all this business with You-Know-Who—

Kel: snorts

Jane: It's not his fault You-Know-Who attacked him when he was a baby!

John: I'm not talking about that! He comes out of the maze and tells everyone this crap lie about how You-Know-Who is back—

Kel: But You-Know-Who _is _back.

Jane: You're just too blind to see it, just like that idiot Fudge!

Kel: Fudge is a weakling. My grandfather was the mayor of a city, and he was offered _plenty _of bribes. Did he take them? _No!_ He could've been rich and gotten my mom whatever she wanted when she was growing up and spoiled her rotten, but no! He was honest, and strong! My mom grew up poor, but she grew up knowing she had an upright, honest, amazing father who would always do what's right!

Jane: blinks How did your grandpa get into this?

Kel: shrugs Just an example.

Liam: You had one honest grandfather.

Kel: Yeah. It's a pity I was too young to remember when he was alive.

John: clears throat _Anyway. _Potter tells this big lie, and of course, Dumbledore believes him, because he's Dumbledore's favorite.

Kel: It's not a big lie, and we don't know whether he's Dumbledore's favorite. There's a lot of talk that he is, but it's just that—talk. Personally, I'm not too sure on that issue. He could be, he couldn't be. We just don't know.

John: Well I think he is.

Liam: Personally, I don't know what to think about anything much right now. Potter could be telling the truth, or he could be just an attention-seeking prat. Fudge could be taking bribes, or he could be acting of his own accord. Either way he's an idiot. Now let's talk about something more pleasant than politics.

John still wasn't quite over the fact that Potter had beaten him to ask Cho out. Since he got no support from Kel, who highly disliked Fudge and the current Ministry, Jane, who highly disliked the government all together, whether it was the Ministry or a muggle government, and Liam, who hadn't decided whether he agreed or disagreed with the Ministry, he went over to the group of Potter-haters/Ministry-lovers in the common room and ranted to them. As Jane saw this, she sighed. "Doesn't he get that Chang doesn't like him and never will?"

Kel grunted in response.

One morning in February, they were eating their breakfast when John pointed and said, "Look!"

They looked up, and saw a scrum of owls flying above a boy with messy black hair and glasses at the Gryffindor table. Liam asked incredulously, "Isn't that Potter?"

At this, John turned to someone sitting next to them (a Ministry lover) and said, "He's done it again, the attention-seeking prat."

The clatter of Kel and Jane's forks stopped. "_What?_" Kel hissed.

"You're calling him an attention-seeking prat just because he has a lot of mail?" Jane asked incredulously.

"Really, John, don't be so shallow. This isn't a publicity stunt. I recall the time _you _had so much mail that the owls started dropping it on my head. I didn't enjoy that very much, but I didn't draw conclusions based on groundless assumptions," Kel said practically.

"Hate to break it to you, John, but it's plenty obvious that the only reason you hate the boy is because he asked Cho Chang out before you had the courage to," Liam said.

"You're only using the propaganda the _Prophet_ is dishing out as an excuse to hate him. Well, I say you're jealous." Jane shot out.

"They're trying to brainwash us. It's all a bloody conspiracy," Kel growled.

"Yeah, get over it, man. She doesn't like you," Liam remarked in his Irish lilt.

"So quit using Potter as a scapegoat," Kel ordered.

John didn't talk to them for the rest of the day, but that didn't matter. They knew he would come around.

"Look! Umbridge is going over to him!" Kel exclaimed.

All the people who heard her turned their heads to look at the exchange between Potter and Umbridge. A lot of them, including Kel, Jane, and Liam, sniggered at the patchy violet color of her face. The short, toad-like woman walked away with something rolled up in her clenched fist.

Later that day, notices had gone up all over the school.

------By Order Of------

The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts 

Any student found in possession of the magazine _The Quibbler_

will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with 

_Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven. _

**Signed: **

Dolores Jane Umbridge

High Inquisitor

"Oh no," moaned Jane.

"What now?" Liam asked.

Jane pointed at the sign. "Her middle name is the same as my first name!"

Kel laughed.

Jane looked slightly green. "I think I'm gonna die."

"Never mind that, let's get a copy of _The Quibbler_!" Liam said, and ran off with the two girls in tow.

After a while, the Quibbler article got old, and Kel, Jane, Liam, and John moved on to new things, like....

"You c-cant!" howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my home!"

Liam, Jane, John, and Kel all stood together, pressed in by the crowd gathered around Professor Trelawney and Umbridge. Liam shook his head in sympathy.

"It _was_ your home," said Umbridge. Enjoyment stretched her toadlike face revoltingly as she watched Professor Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

Jane made a silent show of gagging at Umbridge's words.

The Toad, as many in Ravenclaw called her, stood and watched, despite her order, with an expression of gloating enjoyment, as Professor Trelawney shuddered and moaned, rocking backward and forward on her trunk in paroxysms of grief.

A pair of Gryffindor fifth-year girls was crying silently, their arms around each other.

Then they heard footsteps. John, Liam, Jane, and Kel all turned to see Professor McGonagall break away from the spectators, march straight up to Professor Trelawney and pat her firmly on the back while withdrawing a large handkerchief from within her robes.

"There, there, Sibyll...Calm down....Blow your nose on this...It's not as bad as you think, now....You are not going to have to leave Hogwarts...."

"She's not?" Kel whispered incredulously.

Umbridge seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" she said in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is...?"

"That would be mine," a deep voice said.

The oak front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance, impressive in the oddly misty night. Leaving the doors wide behind him, he strode forward through the circle of onlookers toward the place where Professor Trelawney sat, tearstained and trembling, upon her trunk, Professor McGonagall alongside her.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge with a singularly unpleasant little laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here"—she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes—"an Order of Dismissal signed by the Minister of Magic and myself. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she—that is to say, I—feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."

To the great surprise of many, Dumbledore continued to smile. He looked down at Professor Trelawney, who was still sobbing and choking on her trunk, and said, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he went on, with a courteous little bow, "that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Howarts."

"Good ole' Dumbledore," Liam remarked quietly. Jane nodded.

Professor Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hiccup was barely hidden.

"No—no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall l-leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere—"

"No," said Dumbledore sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sibyll." He turned to Professor McGonagall.

"Might I ask you to escort Sibyll back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"

"Of course," said McGonagall. "Up you get, Sibyll...."

Professor Sprout came hurrying forward out of the crowd and grabbed Professor Trelawney's other arm. Together they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked, _"Locomotor trunks!" _and Professor Trelawney's luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Professor Flitwick bringing up the rear.

The Toad stood stock-still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.

"And what," she said in a whisper that nevertheless carried all around the entrance hall, "are you going to do once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

The Ravenclaw quartet looked at each other. What kind of Divination teacher was this?

"You've found--?" said Umbridge shrilly. "_You've _found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty-two—"

"—the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if—and only if—the headmaster is unable to find one," said Dumbledore. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned to face the open front doors, through which a night mist was now drifting. The sound of hooves echoed through the hall, and a shocked murmur permeated the room. Those nearest the doors hastily moved even farther backward, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the newcomer. Through the mist came a strange but familiar creature: white blond hair and astonishingly blue eyes, the head and torso of a man joined to the palomino body of a horse. Jane gasped—she was an equestrian in her free time.

"This is Firenze," said Dumbledore happily to a thunderstruck Toad. "I think you'll find him suitable."

"Firenze is _hot_!" Jane exclaimed later that evening in the common room.

"Hell yeah!" Kel agreed. "The horse parts are kind of a turn-off though.... don't you agree, Liam?"

"Turn off? It means he's got a bigger-"

Liam grunted interruption. He looked particularly moody.

Kel sighed. "Liam, I know you fancy Jane and all, but there's no way she's going to marry a centaur. Cheer up!"

Both Jane and Liam stared at her in shock. Jane was the first out of her stupor. Shock was replaced by incredulous rage as she bounded forward, right at Kel. Liam watched helplessly.

Thankfully, by the time the 7th years pried Jane off her, Kel was not injured enough to visit the Hospital Wing.

A month or so passed without anything happening aside from the incident where the Slytherins sang Weasley Is Our King in the middle of the library, earning a beating from Liam, who was attempting to finish the Transfiguration essay due the next day. Things went on—visitations with Nesheni, Umbridge-bashing, preventing Liam from getting mauled by Jane, the usual. Then, something happened that left almost every student in the school shaking in their shoes.

Albus Dumbledore was driven out of Hogwarts.

The notices went up around the school.

------By Order Of------

The Ministry Of Magic 

Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

**The above is in accordance with **

_**Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven.** _

**Signed: **

Cornelius Oswald Fudge

Minister of Magic

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" Kel moaned. "Dumbledore's gone—we're in one deep pile of crap!"

"We're goners," Liam said, ashen-faced.

They were all in the strangely silent common room. The chamber, once cozy and warm, had now developed a dark, shadowy visage, and, though the fire crackled in the grate, the room was miserable and cold.

"I didn't like his views, but I never wanted him gone!" John stated. He looked miserable.

"This is all the Toad's fault!" Jane fumed, angry enough to ignore John's previous spiteful comments about favoring Potter.

Kel began to pace. "I heard Hannah Abbott talking about it during break," she said hollowly. "She said Marietta Edgecomb and Harry Potter were the only people aside from the Toad, Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, Fudge, and his entourage. Dumbledore was apparently plotting against Fudge."

"I heard he was plotting to reveal Fudge's deepest secret," John said.

Kel and Jane looked at each other. They both knew what _that _was.

"What's that?" Kel asked cautiously.

"It was...." John lowered his voice conspiratorially. "...Fudge still wears nappies!"

Jane snorted. That was certainly _not _Fudge's deepest secret. No, that had something to do with a certain Dolores Jane Umbridge.

Liam stared into the flames in the fireplace and said solemnly, "A second-year was saying Fudge's in the Hospital Wing with a pumpkin for a head."

Jane snorted again and Kel smiled for a second, then returned to pacing the room with a frown.

"Stop pacing!" John snapped. "You're making me dizzy!"

Kel looked around for prefects, and, finding none, gave John a rude hand gesture and sat down by the fire, holding her freezing hands up for the flames to warm.

"Come on, let's do homework," Jane said half-heartedly.

Silently, the quartet opened their bags and got to work.

Again, the school year settled into a blur, with the important things sticking out, like the Inquisitorial Squad's creation and Umbridge being unable to give Jane detention for chucking dung bombs down the stairs for fear of her diary being published. Then there was the unforgettable incident where Liam turned the entire Inquisitorial Squad into hamsters for spilling ink on yet _another _Transfiguration essay he had to finish by the next day, (a feat that Fred and George Weasley had commended him for, causing him to beam incessantly for the rest of the day) the Weasley twins' fireworks, Snape's remarkably increased moodiness, and the hilarious sight of Harry Potter,Ginny Weasley being chased out of the library by Madame Pince, and not to mention Nesheni's increasing size, appetite, and energy.

It was History of Magic class, and most of the class had fallen into a stupor. Liam's head was on his desk, his uneven, glossy black hair strewn about . John stared, transfixed, at the light reflecting off Cho Chang's equally glossy black hair, oblivious to the fact that Jane was practicing the charm they had learned last period on his hair. Kel tried and failed to take notes and, deciding that she would read up on the rise of Grindelwald later to compensate for lack of notes, focused on John's hair, which was changing from its normal cropped and sandy-colored state to long, bright, blatant, and green.

Finally, the bell rang and the Ravenclaw sixth-years hurriedly exited the classroom for the short break before dinner.

"Rise of Grindelwald started in...in...I don't remember," Kel muttered.

"Wow, that's a first," Liam teased. Kel thwacked him. Jane looked a little ruffled at Kel having been the target of Liam's tease.

"Wow John, you're getting a lot of stares today," Jane remarked innocently. "I wonder why."

"Yeah, you don't look that unusual to me," Liam stated, catching on.

Kel rolled her eyes.

John reached behind to scratch his neck, then stopped as he felt the results of Jane's experimentation with his hair. "What..."—he grabbed a fistful of his long, green tresses—"WHAT IN THE GOOD LORD'S NAME DID YOU TWO DO TO ME?!?!" he roared.

Everyone in the hallway turned and stared.

John pointed at his neon hair with one hand and at Jane with the other. "SHE TURNED MY BLOODY HAIR GREEN!!!!!!!!!!"

"It's not so much bloody as it is...ahem...leafy, and mullet-like" Jane said.

"Relax, John, I'll turn it back," Kel said in pacifying manner.

She drew her stained cherry-wood wand from her inside pocket, and—

BOOM!

It felt like the whole castle shook as an explosion somewhere downstairs rocked the place. Girls screamed, books fell, the chandelier swayed threateningly, and, in the ensuing chaos, everyone forgot all about John's green hair, including John himself, who had fallen straight into a passing Hufflepuff fourth year.

"EARTHQUAKE!" a boy roared.

"Someone's attacked the school!" a girl shouted.

Someone fell into Jane, knocking her over. "Watch it!" she snapped. She distantly heard John bellowing, "Liam! Jane! Kel! Let's get downstairs!" followed by Kel hollering, "Where are you?" It was getting hard to breath, especially with a heavy someone lying on her stomach, impeding her breathing. He didn't appear to be getting up any time soon. "Someone help me get this lout off of me!" she yelled.

And suddenly, she felt strong arms lifting her out from under the burden. She turned around to see the dark green eyes of Liam McNevin. "Let's go," he muttered, and, dragging her along with him, raced out of the hall crowded with students and pandemonium.

Ahead she could see the highlighter-green mullet of John Dewaro and, standing next to him, Kel. They were standing at the edge of a crowd around the entrance hall.

"What's happening?" she panted.

No one spoke in answer.

"What's happening!" she repeated.

Kel spoke quietly. "Fred and George are in trouble."

Liam paled. The Weasley twins were his heroes. "Let's get closer!" he hissed.

The four of them slipped, slid, and elbowed their way to the front of the crowd. The sight that met them there was a very horrible one indeed.

"So!" said Umbridge triumphantly. "So...you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

_That's what caused the earthquake upstairs! _Jane thought. _The twins caused an explosion of...--_she sniffed—_swamp water! Yay! _

"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred, looking back up at her without the slightest sign of fear.

To Jane's horror, none other than Argus Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness.

"I've got the form, Headmistress," he said hoarsely, waving a piece of parchment. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting..." Liam squeezed her hand. Only then did she realize he had been holding it the entire time. "...Oh, let me do it now..."

"Very good, Argus," she said. "You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are."

He turned to his twin.

"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.

"Definitely," said George.

And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together, "_Accio Brooms!_"

A loud crash somewhere sounded, and, suddenly, two broomsticks flew out of a corridor, one trailing a heavy chain and iron peg, turned left, and stopped abruptly in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

"We won't be seeing you," Fred told the Toad, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at the assembled students, his eyes resting for a moment on Liam. He gave him a small smile and a wink, then pronounced in a loud voice:

"If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley—Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added George, pointing at Umbridge.

"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

And Peeves, whom no one had ever seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

Another short lull followed that episode, in which the Ravenclaw quiddich team lost spectacularly to Gryffindor, despite the almost outrageous support they received from Luna Lovegood. Kel and Jane later congratulated Luna on her Ravenclaw Eagle hat, and even gave her two galleons each when she made the hat screech in a life-like imitation of a real eagle.

"Alright, have fun at the Quiddich Pitch," Jane called across the common room.

John, his hair again short and sandy, waved and climbed out of the common room. Liam, already outside, stuck his head back in and shouted, "Alright, sweetheart!"

Then he exited.

Jane stared. "What...what did he just call me?"

"He called you 'sweetheart,'" Kel said without looking up from the outline she was making. "It's what people call the person they fancy."

"But he doesn't fancy me," Jane said confusedly.

"What makes you so sure?" Kel asked absently. She frowned and crossed out a word.

In reality, Jane wasn't so sure. She sighed. "Let's go visit Nesheni while the boys are out."

Immediately, Kel lost her absent air. She packed up her outline, books, and inkbottle, then slung the bag over her shoulder and marched toward the door.

When they got to the Potions classroom, each steeled herself, and then Kel knocked on the door.

"Enter," came Snape's irritable order.

Jane opened the door.

"Khelekkir, Dumont, I am brewing a complicated potion today and would prefer not to have a dragon or two teenage girls in my chambers this evening," Snape informed them immediately. He hesitated, and then said, "I would...appreciate the two of you taking Nesheni outside, under cover of a glamour, of course. She will look like a cat to all except the three of us...if you agree."

Kel and Jane looked at each other. Snape was requesting something? Not demanding, but _requesting_? From _them_?

"We'll do it," Jane said.

"We have to be back at the common room by nine, though," Kel said. "It would look suspicious if we weren't. Besides, there's curfew."

Snape nodded. "Be back by eight-forty five." He cast a charm on Nesheni, and then said, "Go." As they left, they heard him mutter, "Confound these civilities!"

They didn't speak until they got outside. "Let's go to the lake," Nesheni suggested quietly, and she was quiet simply because a talking cat would

Without a word, they headed towards the said lake. Light reflected off the cool waters, sending golden beams into their eyes. Kel turned around, looking for the source of light, and saw the reflection of telescope lenses coming from the Astronomy tower. "The fifth years are taking their Astronomy OWLs right now," she informed her companions. "Let's be extra quiet."

Silently, they crept along the banks until they were under cover of the trees. "Now we can talk quietly," Jane muttered. "So Nesheni how was your day?"

"Boring," Nesheni replied. "You?"

"It was...weird."

A dog barked in the distance.

"How?"

"Liam called her 'sweetheart,' that's how," Kel answered for her.

Nesheni's face was covered in shadows, so none could guess her reaction. Finally, she asked, "Did he?"

"Yeah, and Kel thinks he fancies me," Jane said, disgruntled.

Before Nesheni could reply, a loud BANG filled the air, making their eardrums ring. Several cries of "Ouch!" were heard, and both humans and dragon swung around to see a massive figure, surrounded by six people, roaring and brandishing his fists in the light flooding from Hagrid's open door.

That massive figure could only be one person: Hagrid. And the figures surrounding him could only be doing one thing, judging from the streaks of red coming from their wands: trying to Stun him.

"No!" Jane cried. "Shush!" Kel and Nesheni hissed. "They can't see us! Let's keep it that way!" Jane ignored them and jumped up to run over, but Kel grabbed her robe and yanked her back. "There's nothing you can do," she whispered vehemently. "Nothing but sit here and watch those bloody cravens."

Even if Jane had succeeded in running to him, it wouldn't have made a difference, because the Stunners somehow seemed to be bouncing off of Hagrid. He was still upright and fighting. The shouts of the fighters echoed across the grounds.

"Be reasonable, Hagrid!" a man yelled.

"Reasonable be damned, yeh won' take me like this, Dawlish!" Hagrid roared.

The fighting went on with the fifth years watching the fight from the Astronomy tower and Kel, Jane, and Nesheni hiding in the bushes. Kel had to restrain Jane again when Fang was hit with a stunner. The three lapsed into states of horror and stillness, when...

A figure emerged from the front doors of the castle and ran across the lawn.

"How dare you!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "How _dare_ you! Leave him alone! _Alone_, I say!"

Kel clapped silently.

"On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such—"

It happened all at once. Screams issued from the Astronomy tower, Jane jumped up, Nesheni grabbed hold of her school robes and yanked her back down, and Kel stared, open mouthed in horror, as four bright red streaks of light and energy shot towards Professor McGonagall, their brilliance reminiscent of fresh blood, and collided with her. For a moment she looked luminous, illuminated by an eerie red glow, then was lifted right off her feet, landing hard on her back and moving no more.

They walked back with Nesheni bounding forward, stopping, then bounding forward again and Jane dragging a silent, horror-struck Kel by the robes. Her scar stood out astoundingly red against the paled hue of her skin.

Later, when they were in the common room, Jane voiced what was going through both their minds.

"We are so sending her a get well card, and I don't care what Umbridge comes up with to stop us! This time that evil, power-obsessed Toad has gone TOO FAR!"

(**A/N: **It is done! MWAHAHAHAHA! I've been working on this chapter since frigging August! Sorry about the length. I thought the best place to cut it off would be here. I was going to put the part of chapter 9 in this one, but this is too long already. Next chapter will probably be posted at the same time as this one, seeing as it's completed already. I won't be doing a 'what happened last time' summary again.

The Trelawney-sacking scene, Fred and George's departure, and McGonagall-stunning scene were all taken directly from the book, in verbatim. Now that I have avoided plagiarism, I can make my last announcement:

The reviewers will be mentioned and responded to in the next chapter, as this one is too long already. Thank you for waiting!)

(Editor's note: Well, I love being Jane. I love Kel being, well, Kel. Life works. pats the readers on the head---- GET AWAY FROM MY CHEESE-MONKEYS OR YOU'LL HAVE ONE BRASSED OFF CHAINSAWWEILDING THINGY ON YOUR TAIL!)


	9. Gender Confused Toad

**Disclaimer: **J.K. Rowling owns The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff. I own the made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

Reviews:

**Swordsrock**: Thank you for all of your nitpicking! I greatly appreciate it, even though I probably won't change all my mistakes until the entire freaking story is done. But I will, someday, to make sure new people see it on the lists even after it's done.

**Sirius'sheelah**: Don't worry, Snape won't die. Not in MY story anyway. I've read fics where the author killed him off... I'll try to explain the 'special thing' (I have to find a better name for it, 'cause that 'special thing' is starting to sound lame in my ears) better in chapter 10. It's basically mental wand less magic.

Chapter 9:_Gender-Confused Toad_

Minerva McGonagall sat upright in a hospital bed holding a letter. It had been a while since she had arrived at Saint Mungo's Hospital, but she had regained consciousness only a day ago. A pile of other letters lay on her bedside table: letters from her friends and acquaintances in the Order of the Phoenix. Many had fake names; the Order members working at the Ministry risked losing their jobs if they were caught sending anything to someone close to Dumbledore. Tonks had signed as "Dora," Arthur and Molly Weasley as "Archie and Marge," Albus as "Brian Percival," and Sirius, as always, had scrawled "Snuffles" at the bottom of the parchment.

This letter, however, bore only a blue and bronze eagle and the words "Get Well Soon" on the front. The inside was even stranger. In it was a collection of symbols she had once seen on a Muggle tape recorder Albus had shown her. There was the isosceles triangle that stood for "play." And next to it were the symbols for fast-forward, rewind, and stop.

Minerva's eyebrows knitted together. What did this mean?

Hesitantly, she tapped the triangle with her wand.

Immediately, a voice sounded from the parchment.

"Hi Professor McGonagall, it's Jane Dumont! Kel Khelekkir and I are recording this from the dormitory."

"Hello Professor!" Kel said. "We just wanted to inform you that we at Hogwarts hope you get well soon and without lasting damage. You _would_ have a gigantic pile of mail right now, but that Umbridge bi—er, I mean, sorry excuse for a woman, won't let them through the mail screening process, that git. Yes, I say git, because we all know Umbridge is really a man."

Minerva raised her eyebrows. Wow, these girls had very active imaginations!

"Nah, Umbridge has got to be a woman!" Jane speculated reasonably. "She's having an affair with Fudge!"

"Well, maybe Fudge is gay."

"Mm hm. Umbridge is a man, Cornelius Fudge is homosexual, and I'll end up going out with Liam."

"Oh, but you will."

Minerva heard a cry of disgust from Jane and the _thump!_ of a pillow as it hit Kel's head.

"Wait a minute, Fudge can't be gay!" Kel exclaimed, ignoring Jane's pillow attack. "Gay men have SENSE!!!"

She spoke of this as a great revelation.

"I've got it!" Jane cried triumphantly. "Umbridge is a transvestite!"

"Er, Jane?"

"Ya?"

"That whole conversation was just recorded on the card."

Minerva shook her head, smiling.

"Hello, Cho!" Kel called cheerfully.

A few seconds later, the footsteps of another Ravenclaw girl were audible through the parchment. "How did you know it was me?" Cho Chang asked.

"Oh I recognized your footsteps coming up the stairs," Kel replied.

"O-o-okay," Cho answered, sounding extremely disconcerted at the fact that a girl she generally avoided could recognize and define her footsteps from those of the other fifty-odd people living in Ravenclaw tower.

"Want to say hi to Professor McGonagall?" Jane asked.

"Uh...okay. Wait...exactly how are we going to say hi to Professor McGonagall?" she asked skeptically.

The sound of something being moved aside emanated from the letter. "With this," Jane answered.

"Yeah, a fifth year found the spell to record stuff onto parchment. Who was it, Wylma Rygen?" Kel asked.

"Yeah, it was Wylma Rygen," Jane answered. "You know, she's gonna be a success one day. She's one of the smartest girls in Hogwarts, although Hermione Granger could give her a run for her money."

"You say that like us psychos aren't intelligent," Kel said with a wounded tone. "_Anyway,_ Professor, Cho wants to say hi, if you didn't notice."

"Hello Professor," Cho said, still sounding disturbed. "Er...hope you feel better. What Umbridge did was really horrible, and I'm sure others here would agree."

"Umbridge is a transvestite," Jane piped up.

There was a moment of silence.

"S-s-sorry?" Cho said weakly.

"A transvestite, Cho, _transvestite_," Kel said impatiently. "Dolores Jane Umbridge is a gender-confused Toad transvestite."

"O-okay, I think I'll be going now," Cho said hurriedly, not bothering to disguise the fact that she was seriously freaked out. "Goodbye Professor."

Her footsteps announced that she had made to run down the stairs as quickly as possible.

"_Why _does Umbridge's middle name have to be the same as my first name? _WHY?!?!?_" Jane wailed.

"Poor, _poor _Jane," Kel said. There was a smile in her voice. "I think we should go downstairs so more people can say hi to Professor McGonagall. The more people the better. Being a patient in a hospital really sucks, and I know that from experience. Six experiences, actually."

"You're bragging, Kel."

"Seagull."

There was another _thump _as Jane hit Kel with the pillow yet again.

"Anyway. Downstairs."

"Fine."

There was some static as they took the card down the stairs. Then Minerva heard Kel's voice sound over the noises of the Ravenclaw common room.

"People! _People! _People of Ravenclaw!"

The noise subsided a bit.

"I have here a recorded letter created by Wylma Rygen to Professor McGonagall. Everything I'm saying right now is being stored in the parchment for her to listen to. So mind your language, people, and gather 'round to say hello to our Transfiguration professor."

There was suddenly a rush of voices.

"Hello Professor McGonagall, it's Padma Patil. Parvati and I hope you get well soon enough to teach before the end of the school year! Our exams went great, in case you were wondering—"

"Hi there, Professor, it's Liam McNevin. We all send our love, and we send our loathing to Umbridge, that—"

"Language, McNevin. This is Terry Boot, Professor, and I hope you get well soon. It must be horrible in the hospital, I've heard the food's disgusting—"

"Actually, the food's not so bad. I've been in the hospital as a patient six times, you know. The food's actually really good—"

"We don't want to hear about your visits to the hospital, Kel," Jane said. "And I don't think Professor McGonagall wants to either."

"Hey McNevin, how about some food?" someone called.

"I was just thinking that, Corner. Let me go down to the—wait, a teacher shouldn't be hearing this—well, you know where, and get some."

"Make sure and nab some chocolate pie!" Jane shouted.

"I know, darling," Liam answered.

Jane gasped. "Don't call me that!" she yelled.

There was no answer from Liam, only the sound of the entranceway closing.

"I keep telling you, Jane, he likes you!" Kel said.

"Shut up," Jane grumbled.

Someone sighed. "If only we were of age, then Liam could go off and get some fire-whiskey."

"We could have a drinking contest!" Kel exclaimed. "Wait, no, we're under-aged...not to mention that there's a teacher that'll be listening to all of this..."

Jane was still fuming. "He called me darling, the nerve of him! I oughta..."

"Hello Professor McGonagall, it's Michael Corner. Umbridge is a real coward, we should play a bunch of pranks on her, like the Weasley twins did, that was hilarious-"

"Hi, it's John Dewaro. I finally mastered that Switching Spell I was having trouble with—"

"Hey John! Maybe you could switch Umbridge's hair with Snape's!" somebody called.

"BAHAHA! That'd be hilarious!" Kel exclaimed.

"Let's put some music on," Jane said suddenly.

"Good idea, Dumont," someone said. "What do you have?"

"Ooh! Let's listen to Sublime! Or Weezer!" Kel said excitedly. "Or maybe Nirvana!"

"No! Country music! Save a horse, ride a cowboy!" Jane suggested loudly.

"How about some _wizard _music?" Michael Corner suggested.

"--Maybe Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day or Bad Religion—" Kel was still going on.

"Weird Sisters!" someone called.

"Heavy metal or country," Jane said stoutly.

"I know! Dead Kennedys! Or maybe the Ramones..." she started to sing. _"I wanna be sedated! Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba I wanna be sedated!" _

"Oh no, she'll never shut up now!" John moaned.

"Weird Sisters!"

"Does anyone have the Backstreet Boys?" Marietta Edgecomb asked.

"Do we have the Backstreet Boys? Do we have the Backstreet Boys!" Jane repeated. "Marietta, if I had the Backstreet Boys, I'd have to kill myself. Either that or I would die of shame."

_"Under the bridge downtown is where I drew some blood!"_ Kel sang.

"I keep telling you, the Weird Sisters!"

"Let's have some wizard music!"

"_Under the bridge downtown, I could not get enough!"_ Kel sang.

"Somebody shut her up!" someone shouted.

"The Hobgoblins!"

"Who the hell are the Hobgoblins?"

"Liam's back!"

"I've got chocolate pie for you, Jane my sweet," Liam shouted over the din.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Jane howled again.

_"I look just like Buddy Holly. Oh oh, and you'll marry Tyler Moore! I don't care what they say about us anyway. I don't care 'bout that!"_ Kel sang.

Liam looked in her direction. "Oh no," he cried. "She's singing Weezer! She'll never shut up now!"

"I don't care what you play as long as it isn't that loud punk noise you call music!" Cho said.

_"I sit around and watch the phone, but no one's callin'. Call me pathetic, call me what you will."_

"Oh no," Liam and Jane groaned at the same time.

_"My mother says to get a job—"_

"Hey Professor, it's Wylma Rygen. I send you my best wishes, hope you get well very quickly—"

_"But she don't like the one she's got. When mas—" _

"SHUT UP!" Liam hollered.

"Good cover-up there," Jane said to Liam. "If that line had gotten onto the letter—"

"Hello Professor McGonagall," said the dreamy voice of Luna Lovegood. "Someone just reported another sighting of the Crumple Horned Snorkack, and I learned the Vanishing Spell."

_"Do you have the time to listen to me whine? About nothing and everything all at once?" _

"Shut it Khelekkir!" someone snapped.

"_I am one of those melodramatic fools. Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it." _

"How can we get her to shut up?" John asked desperately.

Some country music started playing randomly. "Jane! Turn that off!" John shouted. After many complaints from her fellow Ravenclaws and one death threat, she complied.

"Well, it's time for us all to go to bed. We've got a test in Charms tomorrow, and this card recorder thing can't go on forever. So everyone say goodbye to Professor McGonagall," Jane said.

"_I met a girl named Nikki I guess you could say she was a—" _

"Shut up, Khelekkir, shut UP!"

"Bye Professor!" someone called.

"Get well soon, we miss you!"

"Tell us what the hospital food's _really _like!"

"G'night, Professor."

"I met her in a hotel lobby mas—" 

There was a loud _thwack _of one hard object being smacked down upon another, and the singing was stopped.

"She should wake up in a few hours," Jane assured her. "In the meantime, I'm sure she wanted to say goodbye to you, Professor. And so I say goodbye for the both of us. Get better quick, so you can come back and relieve our boredom by teaching us Transfiguration!"

The card ended there.

Minerva McGonagall sat there staring at it for a few moments. Then she started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. She laughed so hard that a Healer rushed in to ask her if anything was wrong.


	10. Night To Remember

**Disclaimer: **J.K. Rowling owns The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff. I own the made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

Chapter 10: _Night To Remember _

"I don't ever wanna feel 

_Like I did that day _

_Take me to the place I love _

_Take me all the way."_

_-"Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers _

_Early or middle 1990's_

And so the year passed on until the beginning of summer, but nothing could prepare the wizarding world for the phenomenon that rocked it right then.

Kelenariel awoke on a Friday morning to find the dormitory deserted. The sun blazed in through the window, illuminating Jane's immaculate (and empty) territory and Kel's messy own. Kel sifted through a pile of clean clothes by her bed, drew out a school robe, blouse, and other necessary items of uniform dress and, after hurriedly pulling them on and arranging her hair so that it didn't _look _untidy, she raced downstairs.

The Great Hall was unusually quiet that morning. The only noises were the clinks and clatters of silverware and the rustling of newspapers. The students sat there, some with despairing looks, some horrified, some numb, but they all shared one common characteristic: silence.

Kel slid onto the bench next to Jane and whispered heatedly, "Why didn't you wake me up? I didn't even have time to get ready! And why's everyone so quiet?"

Some at the table shared oh-no-she-doesn't-know looks, others gave her sympathetic expressions, but Jane simply handed her a newspaper—_The Daily Prophet._

She smoothed out the wrinkled paper to see a large picture of a boy with untidy raven hair, glasses, and astonishingly green eyes. But what stood out most was the one characteristic she shared with that boy—the scar.

YOU-KNOW-WHO RETURNS 

Harry Potter Wasn't Lying

Time seemed to stop and center on that one line: You-Know-Who Returns. The picture of the boy whose shoulders the world seemed to rest upon escaped Kelenariel's attention; Jane's worried questions of her welfare fell upon deaf ears. Kel did not see the newspaper in front of her or the worried faces of her friend—she only saw the dead faces of the casualties the Dark Lord had left behind from the last war, only saw the ruined homes of his victims, only saw the Dark Mark burning high above the house of her father's brother, not dispersing despite the bone-chilling, howling winds that tried to sweep it away. She felt the icy fingers of hatred clutch her heart as the names flew past her eyes, printed in a newspaper from long ago—Prewitt, McKinnon, Khelekkir, Bones, Potter, Pettigrew, and countless other names, stark against the white of the wafer-thin paper of the _Daily Prophet_.

"Kel? Are you okay?" Jane asked gently. She only spoke gently when she knew the person to whom she was speaking was in a delicate state, and then only when that particular person was someone she had some affection for.

"Jane, during the war we were only one or two years old."

"Er…yeah," Jane said. "What about it?"

"This time, you're fifteen and I'm sixteen."

"Yeah," Jane said again.

"Last war we were too young to understand what was going on, let alone do something about it. But this time, we know. This time, I'm going to do something about it."

"I'd best go with you then," Jane said immediately. "I have to keep you out of trouble."

Kel smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"That's not good news," Nesheni said grimly.

The three were seated on the floor of Nesheni's dark room in a circle. The Sunday edition of the _Daily Prophet _with its picture of Potter on the front was on the floor in front of them.

Jane glanced toward the open door, then leaned her head in and whispered, "How has Snape reacted?"

Nesheni, too, looked at the door then answered, "He's been all moody since Friday, but he didn't tell me why."

"Friday's the day the news came out. And when is he _not _moody?" Kel said.

"Erm…. when he's sleeping?" Nesheni guessed.

Jane laughed then stopped when she heard footsteps coming toward the room. All put on straight faces and pretended not to notice the footsteps (yet another "Annoy Snape" tactic).

It was not Snape who entered the room, though, but Dumbledore. "Good evening, ladies," he greeted them.

"Good evening," they echoed back at him. What was the headmaster here for?

"As you know, the school year is almost over," he said.

Jane's eyes lit up. "You want us to stay here over the summer with Nesheni," she said excitedly.

Dumbledore turned to face her. "Yes, that is the idea," he said. "Would you agree to it?"

"Of course!" Jane exclaimed.

Dumbledore looked to Kel expectantly.

"I'll stay," she answered in an unreadable tone.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said. "The two of you will room in the seventh-year dorms over the summer, as those will be your dorms next school year. I will inform you if any changes occur to this plan."

"Lovely! I get to spend my summer relaxing with my favorite buffoons!" Nesheni exclaimed, sarcasm not even the least bit apparent in her voice.

"Yup, that's pretty much the long and short of it," Jane said.

Kel sighed and shook her head.

Dumbledore pulled out a pocket watch, studied it, and announced that he had to leave, and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

"We're going to have so much fun!" Nesheni declared.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, sifting through piles of muggle newspaper dating back from when he was driven from the school to that day's. He hadn't been able to access his office during his absence, and now it was filled from floor to ceiling with mail. He had only just gotten to the May newspapers. Most of the news wasn't that interesting, with the exception of the muggle-American preliminary elections and Wal-Mart's ban on Sheryl Crow's new album. There was something about the O.J. Simpson trial, which was old news, and a picture of a yellow-haired man. Albus tossed this aside, reached for the next issue, then halted his movement and turned back to the discarded picture of the blond man.

The headmaster frowned as he read the article below the picture. Some of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students were fond of the man's rock band. They wouldn't be too happy to hear this news…

"You'll like this," Kel said excitedly. "Sublime's an awesome band. And Bradley Nowell is so talented…"

Nesheni yawned and stretched out. "Is it just me or are these pillows shrinking?" she asked, absently scratching a hole in one of the said pillows.

Kel stopped fiddling with the Sublime CD and turned to scrutinize Nesheni. "They're not shrinking," she informed the dragoness. "_You're _growing."

"Oh. Goody," Nesheni said. "Now turn on the CD. I want to hear this 'awesome band.'"

Kel grinned and pointed her reddish-brown wand at the muggle artifact. "_Perfungor!_"

Nesheni watched the CD start to spin in interest. "Who made that spell? That fifth year?"

"Yeah," Kel said absently as she fiddled with the CD. "She's a genius."

"Why isn't it playing?" Jane asked impatiently.

"'Cause Kel's messing with it," Nesheni said. "Kel, hurry up."

Kel tapped the CD with her wand, then stood back triumphantly as it started to play.

_Let me tell you about a girl I know,  
had a drink about an hour ago   
sitting in a corner by herself,  
in a bar in downtown l.  
she heard a noise and she looked through the door.  
And saw a man she'd never seen before.  
Light skin, light blue eyes, a double chin and a plastic smile._

"Who's singing?" Nesheni asked.

"Bradley Nowell," Jane answered. "Here's his picture." She tossed a CD booklet with a picture of a handsome man with buzzed blond hair to the dragon. "Isn't he hot?"

Nesheni's shrewd copper eyes traveled over the picture of Nowell. "I'm not attracted to humans, so I can't say," she said. "He's an excellent singer though."

H_er heart raced as he walked through the door  
and took an empty seat next to her at the bar.  
"My brand new car is parked right outside.  
How'd ya like to go for a ride?"_

"Dang, he plays some good guitar," Jane commented some time later. "I can't sing and play at the same time."

"Me neither," Kel said.

At that point, footsteps were heard coming toward the room. Nesheni, Kel, and Jane grinned at each other and put on their most innocent faces, but it was not Snape who entered the room, but the headmaster--_again_.

"Hello, professor," Nesheni greeted him cheerfully. "What brings you down here?"

"I was looking through some old muggle newspapers and I found an article that you might be interested in," said Dumbledore solemnly. He handed Jane the newspaper with the yellow-haired man on it.

Jane's brow creased as she read the article. "Wow, that sucks," she said after a minute.

"What?" Nesheni and Kel asked together.

Jane looked uneasily at Kel. "I'll let Nesheni read it, but I don't want to give it to Kel. She might have an emotional breakdown." She nodded to further her point and tossed the article to Nesheni.

Kel rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, I have self-control. Let me see it!"

Nesheni opened the newspaper and, seeing the headline, crinkled her nose. "No, you'll flip if you see this. You _love _Sublime."

"Nesheni…GIMME THE ARTICLE!!!!"

"No! You'll go insane!"

"Wha'dya mean, I'll go insane? I already am insane! What other explanation is there for me running up and down the halls shouting 'Frodo lives' and singing about drugs in the entrance hall?"

"You'll go even more insane, then."

Dumbledore watched with an amused expression as Kelenariel Khelekkir leaped from her chair and tackled the dragon.

"Aiyeeee! What are you doing?!" Nesheni screeched. Kel rolled over and sat up triumphantly, newspaper in hand.

"Crazy little human," the dragoness muttered.

Kel opened the newspaper with a satisfied grin and read aloud, "Bradley Nowell, lead singer of Sublime, died on May 25, 1996…" The grin melted off her face. "Bradley Nowell? Dead? How…?" She ruffled through some pages and settled on one near the middle of the newspaper. "Hotel room…tour…Lou-dog…heroine overdose…" she closed the newspaper with a flap. "Heroine overdose," she repeated flatly.

"Here comes the emotional breakdown," Jane whispered dramatically.

Kel glared at her. "What if Garth Brooks died? What would _you _do?"

Jane blinked, eyes widening, "Ah. Point taken."

Kel sighed. "First Kurt Cobain in '94, now Bradley Nowell. ALL THE GREAT ROCK SINGERS ARE DYING OUT!!!!"

"Didn't Sid Vicious die of a heroine overdose too?" Nesheni asked.

"Yeah," Kel said. "But he was a bass player. A really _bad _bass player."

After a while, Dumbledore stood and bade them farewell. Snape stormed in to demand that they turn the music off. They assented, but turned it back on as soon as the Potions Master was settled well enough into his essay grading to not notice it. The CD stopped and the candles waned, but the three sat in silence until Snape came in to order Kel and Jane out. Not a word was spoken until Kel and Jane left the Potions department. It was the least they could do for the great reggae-rock musician. But neither of them would settle for "the least they could do".

"Headmaster, this is preposterous!" Severus hissed. "Of all the idiocy...THEY'RE

PLAYING MUGGLE ROCK MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!"

He couldn't believe it. Khelekkir and Dumont had disrupted the school's sleep to hold a memorial for a _rock singer: _and not just any rock singer. A rock singer addicted to heroine. Even worse, a considerable amount of people, mostly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, had shown up at the event wearing Sublime T-shirts and badges and were now singing along to the band's music.

Dumbledore did not reply, his light blue eyes on the magical bonfire the students had conjured in memory of Sublime's lead singer. "We have to stop this!" Severus continued. "Nowell was bad enough when he was alive...but to keep up all the teachers in the middle of the night with his horrible noise!"

"Let them."

"WHAT?"

"Let them, Severus. Let them have their memorial. I'll just get them to turn the music down somewhat."

The strains of Sublime's "Badfish" entered their ears.

_Tell me are you a bad fish too?_

_Are you a bad fish too?_

"_Headmaster_," Severus growled, "What kind of example is this for them?"

_I swim but I wish I'd never learned_

_The water's too polluted with germs._

"Bradley Nowell was a great musician," Dumbledore said, not answering his question. "Let him be honored."

Severus blinked at him incredulously.

"You...you...."

"Yes, Severus. I like Sublime. I especially like the cheerful reggae sound they made. So quit trying to close down this memorial and return to your chambers. Good night."

Hurried footsteps echoed through the near-empty Transfiguration corridor as Jane Dumont hurried through it, clutching a bundle of parchment. It was strangely cold for a summer's day, and despite the rays of sunshine that shone through the wide windows, Jane had donned a cloak to protect her from the chill.

She checked her watch—5 minutes until the next class. That left her almost no time to get to the Transfiguration classroom, hand in her late essay, and get to Charms. She broke into a run, legs carrying her past statues, paintings, tapestries—and straight into Liam McNevin.

Books and parchment fell to the floor as the two collided, but Liam caught her before she could duplicate their action. Jane's eyes followed her late Transfiguration essay to the floor, then flickered to Liam's face and stopped. She had meant to thank him, but her breath caught in her throat when she saw that his face was just centimeters away from hers.

Liam flashed his usual mischievous grin at her. "Aren't you going to say thank you?"

Life returned to her and she pulled herself up. "Thank you, Liam. Now if you'd excuse me, I have to deliver something." She tried to wrest herself from his grasp, but he wouldn't budge. "Liam," she said exasperatedly, "What are you playing at? I need to go _now_."

Liam chuckled. "Jane, I'm not playing at anything. You need to learn to relax," he told her. "Let me show you how."

And then he kissed her.

It felt as though a bolt of electricity had passed from his lips to hers and throughout the rest of her body. Her knees buckled, but it didn't matter—he was holding her up. Finally, he broke the kiss and let her fall gently to the floor, and, with a wink, gathered up his books and strode off.

And she sat there, staring off into space and reminiscing about what was undoubtedly the best experience in her life. She paid no heed to the books and parchment strewn about her, nor to the grains of the hourglass opposite her on the wall ticking away. Nothing she saw registered in her brain—until an expanse of black cloth blocked her view of the opposite wall.

Jane blinked. What was this big hunk of black blocking her vision? Why was it here? What business did it have interrupting her daily routine? It would pay for disturbing her thoughts. Oh yes, it most certainly would.

"Dumont, I have tried and failed to understand why you continue to stare at me in that fashion. I am not your dinner. Now up you get. You're late for class."

A jumble of thoughts exploded into her head, but one stood out: _Snape?! _

She lifted her head to meet his gaze slowly; ice blue eyes meeting ebony ones. Neither pair of orbs moved, each seeking to stare the other into submission.

Finally, the Potions master broke the silence. "You are wasting both our time, Dumont. Get up." He stretched out his hand.

Jane narrowed her eyes. "What are you playing at?"

Snape raised a brow. "I am not playing at anything. Get up."

Jane stayed immobile. "That's what Liam—" she stopped, realizing what she had almost revealed, and cringed.

The Potions master jerked his head in an irritated fashion and an exhaled sharply in disgust. "Dumont," he intoned through gritted teeth, "I am not going to do what that jackanapes of a McNevin did. I am trying to get you to class. Now for the last time, _get up._"

And finally, she did.

Snape waved his wand, causing Jane's fallen books and parchment to zoom into her arms. "What class are you supposed to be in?"

"Uh...I don't know."

"Hmph." He grabbed the schedule from her arms and traced it with a long finger. "You have…Charms. You'd best be going."

"Sure, sure…oh, Professor Snape?"

He turned toward her.

"Thanks."

Snape looked uneasy. "Damn that Headmaster and his civilities," he muttered.

"Oh so _that's_ why you're being nice," Jane remarked.

"Yes, it is."

"Ah. He must be more of a nag than he lets on."

"Yes, he is." Snape hesitated, then added, "Go out with McNevin. You would make his life happier than it has ever been."

Jane gaped. "How…what…?"

"I've seen him, Dumont. And I haven't failed to notice that whenever I'm looking at him, he's looking at you." Before Jane could say anything else, he gave her a slight push in the direction of the stairway. "Go to class, Dumont."

Jane glanced amazedly at him one more time, and then ran down the stairs toward the Charms classroom and, more importantly, a certain Liam McNevin.

Ever since the news of the Dark Lord's return was revealed last week, evenings in the Ravenclaw common room were subdued compared to the usual bustle of activity that filled it. Jane and Liam hadn't spoken with each other since the day in the hallway, and were carefully avoiding eye contact. This wasn't the only reason for the silence though…

"Why's everyone so quiet?" John whispered.

"I'll give you three guesses, seeing as it's _so _hard a question," Kel answered him sardonically.

John looked at her, indignant. "Well excuse me for not knowing all the usual gossip around here."

"It's not gossip I'm talking about!" Kel snapped. "I don't pay attention to gossip either! I'm talking about the mass killer that just revealed himself to the public!"

Several people turned around to view the source of so loud an exclamation. Jane and Liam watched in silence, each avoiding the other's gaze, as John countered, "Well seeing as you've known he was back all this time, I don't see why it upsets you!"

Kel leaned in until her eyes were inches from John's. "I'll tell you why it upsets me. It upsets me because now that he's out in the open, he's going to kill people! He's going to kill and kill and kill, and that idiot Cornelius Fudge could've done something to prevent some of those deaths, but he didn't! And now some innocent muggle who doesn't know shit about the war is going to pay for our chocolaty friend's blunder. No, I'm mistaken on that. More than one innocent muggle will pay. Much more than one."

She turned away from John and the people watching and bent back over her essay, but she couldn't mask the tears that had fallen down her cheeks.

Liam stood abruptly. "I'm going to get some drinks," he said to the carpet in front of Jane's feet. Then he sped off.

Kel lifted her head slightly to observe Liam's departure. "What are you going to do about him?" she asked Jane croakily as she brushed her tears away.

Jane was quiet for a moment, then answered, "I don't know."

"Do you want to be with him?"

Silence.

"Well?"

"Yes."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Kel demanded.

"How am I going to tell him? This is really awkward, you know."

"Just—"

She didn't get to answer though, for the subject of their conversation had just ducked back into the common room from his dormitory and walked toward them.

"Play it by ear!" Kel whispered. Then she stood from the couch and departed for the other side of the common room.

Jane hurriedly glanced toward Liam and then at the floor as she realized he was heading for her. Her mouth suddenly felt as dry as a bone. Play it by ear? _Play it by ear? _That was a musical term! What did it mean again? Why did Kel have to use terms she didn't know? Why?

"Hey," Liam said quietly.

What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? Where was her brain right now?

"Hi," she answered.

"I nicked some fire-whiskey from Umbridge," Liam said offhandedly.

Jane dropped her quill. "_What?_"

"Yeah, Umbridge is in the hospital wing. She can't do anything about it."

"Fire-whiskey," Jane reiterated.

"Yeah, it was all I could find outside the kitchens and inside Hogwarts. It's under my bed now."

Jane nodded, not thinking of anything else to say. She didn't like alcohol at all, but she didn't really feel like saying that now. Her eyes strayed to Liam, who seemed to be trying very hard not to look at her. His hand was lying a mere centimeter away. Would it seem too forward if she took it? Did he still like her? Had she waited to long? What if—

"Aw, fuck it," she said aloud.

Liam turned to her. "Fuck wha—"

He didn't get to finish, because at that point, Jane grabbed his shoulders, pulled him in, and kissed him hard.

Kelenariel surveyed the two from an armchair in the shadows, a smirk on her face. Finally, they listened to reason and let out their feelings!

She caught John's eye and pointed toward Jane and Liam. When John saw, he let out a whoop and started clapping.

Kel grinned and joined in as Cadaver, forgotten until now, cawed in approval. Many things were uncertain and unbalanced right now, but one thing was for sure: this was a night to remember.

(**A/N**: At last, after many weeks of toil, chapter 10 is done! Sorry if it was a bit choppy, but it's hard to write smoothly when you have writer's block. From now I'll probably cease answering reviews in my author's notes, just to be safe, because I think it's against the rules. Just so you know, readers, things are getting a lot more developed from here, seeing as school's going to end soon and Voldie has revealed himself. Cadaver and Nesheni are coming back in more too. Consider this your belated Chrismahanakwanzaaka present; I worked hard on it. Or it could be your early New Year's present. You decide.

Oh and one more thing: I finally have a picture of Kel!!! The URL is in my profile, so make sure to look! I would put it here, but hyperlinks don't show up in updates.

Happy rest of 2004!)

(E/N: Hi everyone! Kel forced me to take my medication/... well... that means I'm happy all the time… YAY! HEE! Actually no. Uhm. Nobody forced me to do anything. That means I'm still evil, and now I'm going for world domination.)


	11. Settling In

**Disclaimer: **J.K. Rowling owns The Harry Potter storyline, characters, and all that other stuff. I own the made-up characters, such as Kel, Jane, and Nesheni. Story edited by Kichikitsune.

**Summary:** Severus Snape's pet peeve is the pair of girls who constantly tick him off. What happens when the dragon Nesheni forces them to work together?

Chapter 11: _Settling In _

"And I'll write every three days, I swear!" Liam shouted as John dragged him toward the door. Jane giggled as Liam's head was bumped against the wall in John's efforts.

"He's a good man. You're lucky to have him," Kel said, a half-smile, half-smirk crossing her face as Liam swatted at John's head.

"I still remember the spell for the recorder-letter too, and I'll use it!" Liam called.

"You'd better!" Jane warned.

"Come on Liam, we'll miss the train home if you don't quit shouting to your ladylove," John growled, tugging on Liam's arm.

"Go, Liam," Kel advised, another smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Else you'll get your arm torn off."

"Thank you!" John ejaculated, giving Liam's arm another almighty pull.

Jane shook her head sadly. "I'm gonna miss him," she said to Kel.

"Jane!" Liam shouted suddenly.

"Liam," John said dangerously, "Don't make me rip your arm out of its socket!" He heaved again on the arm, pulling Liam halfway through the exit.

"Jane!" Liam shouted again.

"Yes?" Jane answered.

"Jane, I lo—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, unfortunately, because John yanked him through the doorway at last and slammed the door shut after him. Jane stood there in amazement, not believing her ears.

"Kel? Did he just—"

"Yes, he did. Go pack."

"What about—"

"I have to get something from the library. I'll be right back."

"Liam?"

"Yeah?"

"You must really like Jane. Either that, or you're gay."

"There's nothing wrong with gay people," a voice from behind their backs said.

Liam and John whirled around to see Kelenariel Khelekkir standing in front of them, surveying them coolly.

"Kel, what—"

"Jane's sixteenth birthday is August tenth, Liam. You'd best remember that."

"What should I—"

"Get her a country music album…or death metal. That's always good too."

"I don't know any Death Metal bands."

"I do. One she doesn't have is "Stormblast" by Dimmu Borgir. They're Norwegian, I believe. If you can't find that, get some random country singer's album."

"Does she know you're doing this?"

"No." Kel glanced at her watch then looked back up at Liam. "I'd better run. I have to get something from the library. Have a good summer, Liam, John." She raised her hand in farewell, turned around, and walked off calmly to the library.

John shook his head resignedly. "I pity her children," he said sadly.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Kel's pile of robes hovered feebly off the ground for all of five seconds, then flopped back to the floor.

"I keep telling you, Kel, fold the clothes and pack them in your trunk. _Then _you can levitate the whole thing upstairs in one sitting."

"Fine. _Complico!_" The topmost robe in the pile rapidly folded itself into a neat package and, under Kel's direction, landed on her bed.

Jane blinked from amid her own manually folded clothing, half-folded shirt in her hands. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you had the flu the day we had that class," Kel answered her. "Let me teach you the spell. Wand up."

Jane lifted her wand.

"You have to concentrate on that robe folding itself. Picture it or imagine the sound of the cloth or whatever."

"Okay."

"Now jab at the robe with your wand and say, '_Complico!_'"

"_Complico!_"

Jane's shirt folded itself…backward.

Kel shrugged. "Meh. It takes practice. _Complico!_"

"I think I'll just fold my clothes manually," Jane said, disgruntled.

"Fine, suit yourself…hey…"

Jane turned to see Kel holding a long, guitar-shaped bag.

"Is that your…"

"Yeah, it's my bass," Kel said in an awed tone. "I haven't played this in ages…"

"Don't play it now," Jane advised. "Pack up first."

Reluctantly, Kel set the bass aside and continued folding the school robes.

"Play it, play it, play it!" Nesheni demanded excitedly. Cadaver cawed agreement, head bobbing up and down comically.

Kel smiled almost shyly as she unzipped her guitar carrying case. "I haven't played in ages. This is probably going to be really bad."

"Just shut up and play it!" Jane exclaimed. "Why aren't you bragging? That's what you normally do when it comes to your own talents!"

Unruffled, Kel slipped the bass guitar out of the bag. The light gleamed off the silver frets as she swung it into the right position to play. Cadaver squawked impatiently.

"Shut that sodding bird up!" the faraway voice of Snape commanded sharply.

"Don't call _him _a 'sodding bird!'" Jane replied in kind. "His name is Cadaver!"

"What kind of a bloody name is that?" they heard Snape mutter to himself.

"If you haven't seen the bird, Severus, he looks _dead_," a new voice answered him.

Kel's eyes widened. "_McGonagall?_" she inquired.

Nesheni sniffed the air. "Yup, McGonagall," she confirmed. "I can smell her perfume."

"Play your bass," Jane prompted.

Kel immediately turned her attention back to the four-stringed instrument in her hand, running her fingers up the frets.

"Play!" Nesheni nagged.

"Hold on! I have to find a melody!"

After a few moments of muffled conversation from Snape's classroom and sniffs and snorts from Jane and Nesheni, Kel plucked a note on the second to lowest string. Both dragon and human heads shot up at the noise. The note evolved into a mellow, jazzy tune as Kel's fingers traveled over the long fingerboard of the instrument. Occasionally a note would falter or buzz or a finger would slip, interrupting the flow of notes, but these mistakes were soon corrected.

Nesheni's head bobbed with the bass notes contently, a slender claw raised, swaying back and forth as if conducting. Jane just sat there in her usual manner, ruffling the feathers on the back of Cadaver's dull black neck. Then Professor McGonagall's light footsteps could be heard just outside the door, and the two Ravenclaw girls sat up attentively.

"Professor?" Kel's bass was quieted by steady fingers and the general casualness that had pervaded the room moments before vanished.

"Good afternoon, girls. May I come in?" the professor inquired through the door.

Kel and Jane exchanged wary glances. The pause was broken as Kel stood. "Of course," was her calm answer. Jane stood as the door was opening and greeted Minerva McGonagall with a nervous blink. Nesheni, meanwhile, pranced leisurely up to the Transfiguration Professor, flaunting overly glossy scales and wings that were obviously still in the process of growing. Tail swaying high in the air, the dragon blinked up at the bespectacled woman, finding her far more imposing than she had first imagined.

"Hello Professor!" She offered a feral grin, jaws parting slightly, tongue lolling over the side of her mouth. If she felt nervous under the gaze of the respected teacher, then she did a splendid job of hiding it, siding back on her haunches and extending a hand-like… paw…to touch the professor's arm in light greeting while managing a strange expression that mixed curiosity and smugness. "I'm Nesheni."

"Hello, Nesheni. I am Professor McGonagall. It's a pleasure to meet you," McGonagall answered with a nod.

Nesheni relaxed back onto her haunches, surveying the tall woman before her. "So, Professor McGonagall, what brings you here?"

Professor McGonagall's beady eyes traveled over the room, surveying the ripped, frayed, frequently mended pillows; wood shavings piled in the corner of the room (Nesheni had ripped these when she had been bored), the strings of Kel's bass, and viewed the group once more. "The Headmaster asked me to tell the three of you to be at his office at three this afternoon," she said. "He wants to discuss your summer arrangements."

"Okay, we'll be there," Nesheni assured her animatedly. "Listen to Kel play the bass!"

"Now wait a sec—"

"No, Kel. You're going to play," Jane interrupted.

"But—but—"

"_Now._"

"But what am I supposed to play?" Kel asked.

"You're the one who knows music, not me. Choose an easy one and play."

"If you don't, I'll bite you," Nesheni added.

Professor McGonagall watched this all with an amused expression.

Kel's left eye twitched as she hefted the bass guitar up to a more comfortable position to play in and halfheartedly plucked a note.

"Come on, make it better than that!" Nesheni nagged.

"Eh…I'll play one everyone knows," Kel muttered. She started to play a lively tune.

"I know this," Jane muttered. "But I just can't place it…"

"Er…the Bagels or something like that?" Nesheni guessed.

"The Beatles, 'I Feel Fine,'" McGonagall pronounced.

Jane and Nesheni turned to stare at the Transfiguration professor. Kel stopped playing and looked up a beat after them.

"I'm right, am I not?" the woman asked, eyebrows raised.  
"Yeah…you are." Kel said disbelievingly.  
Professor McGonagall noticed the amazement on their faces, and said, "It's not as if I am completely cut off from the world, girls. I _do _know some music groups."  
Instantly, excitement sparked in Kel's eyes. "Ooh, what bands do you know?"

Jane rolled her eyes and Nesheni sighed, but McGonagall seemed quite interested in the path the conversation was taking. "Oh, the Beatles is just one of them. I like the Bee Gees, Neil Sedaka, the Monkees, the Rat Pack…"

"You like the Monkees? So do I!"

"I have to warn you, Professor, once you get her started, she won't stop," Jane interrupted. "Same if you ask her about books, grammar, or history."

"I never did understand the concept of a comma," Nesheni muttered.

"An' don' even mention Lord o' the Rings," a gruff voice declared.

"Hagrid!" Jane cried. "Hi!"

"Squee!"

The half-giant turned to Nesheni with a puzzled look on his face. "Now wha' was that for, Nesheni?"  
"I don't know. I just wanted to say 'squee.'"

"Alrigh'. Nesheni, it's time for your bath."

The dragon wrinkled her nose. "Oh no. I hate soap."  
Kel shook her head. "Nesheni, soap is a necessity of life. Without it, you get caked in dirt and grime and the like, and water can't wash that off like soap can. Do you want to be dirty and grimy?"

"Kel, stop nagging Nesheni," Jane ordered.

"Well _you're _nagging _me,_" Kel retorted.

"Both of you shut up," Nesheni interrupted. "I'll see you later."

"Alright," Kel said. "Have fun with the soap, Nesheni, Hagrid."

The gigantic bearded man and the dragoness departed, leaving an awkward silence in their wake. Kel, Jane, and McGonagall stood in the center of the room alone.

Kel finally decided to break the silence. "So…what other bands do you like?"

"Now, the rules and regulations for this summer," Dumbledore announced. He flipped a piece of parchment over and looked at the next purple-ink-covered one. "Meal times…no, we already covered that," he muttered to himself. "Living arrangements…we talked about that too…" He lifted up another parchment, this one covered in green ink. "'Dear Albus, how would you like to have dinner…' No, that's from Minerva…" He hurriedly put it down.  
Kel and Jane exchanged triumphant looks.

"Rules and Regulations…here it is." The Headmaster pulled a parchment out from a book and studied it for a moment. "Firstly, you need to know who you can talk to freely about Nesheni."

"Who would that be?" Jane inquired.

"Most of the faculty, except Argus Filch, Madame Pince, Professor Sinistra, and Professor Vector. These people do not know of Nesheni's existence, and informing them would run the risk of our enemies finding out."

Kel and Jane exchanged another glance. They both knew who these 'enemies' were.

"What about Professor Trelawney?" Kel asked uneasily. "She's…well…not very reliable. How do we know we can trust her?"

Professor Dumbledore turned his penetrating gaze on her. "Professor Trelawney has not betrayed my trust in the past, and I see no reason for her to do so now."  
"What if she makes some kind of prophecy about Nesheni?" Kel continued. "I know she wouldn't remember it, but some people are uninformed. They'd think she knew more and most likely torture her to get answers."

Nesheni, Jane, Snape, and Dumbledore all turned to stare at her.  
"Of course," Dumbledore mused. "You're a seer. Severus told me, but I forgot." He put down the parchment he was holding and stared her in the eye. His gaze seemed different than ordinary; it was shrewder; less benevolent and more ruthless. "That reminds me, Kelenariel. Now that Voldemort—" all in the room except the headmaster flinched—"is out in the open, we will need all the information on him we can get, so we can counter his attacks as soon as possible." He gave a sidelong glance to Snape, who stared back unflinchingly. "The safest way to obtain information is for a seer to…tell us of it." He turned his gaze back to Kel. "We need all the information we can get. Kelenariel, every time you have some sort of vision, or prophecy, or so much as an inkling of foresight, tell me immediately. If I am not available, tell Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall. Also, if there is any way to stimulate prophecies, such as a mental exercise you could do or some special diet, do that."  
Kel nodded, face oddly blank. Jane could've imagined it, but the corners of her friend's mouth might have twitched downward once or twice.

"Excellent. Now, for the rest of the rules…"

It was eventually decided that the boundaries of their gallivanting would be set at the Forbidden Forest and at the road to Hogsmeade. Kel and Jane could stay up as long as they wished, but Nesheni had to be back at Snape's dungeon by nine-fifteen, since Snape locked his doors around that time to sleep; the girls had to be in their dormitory by ten. On weekends, Kel and Jane (who chose not to) could leave the school grounds for religious services as long as they were back by noon.

"One last matter of business before the meeting is adjourned," Dumbledore said. "Jane, I understand you and Mr. McNevin are in a relationship now."  
Jane blushed and nodded, shifting slightly.

"You cannot inform Liam of anything to do with Nesheni; the less people who know, the better. You yourself were not supposed to know, but…well, we won't cover that."

Nesheni grinned at the memory.

"Furthermore, when term begins this September, you cannot let him know where you go every other day. Say you're doing something that he wouldn't do if his life depended on it, and make sure no one follows you when you go._ I cannot stress enough how important it is that Nesheni remains a secret._"

"But—"

"You cannot tell him, Dumont. If you do not agree with that, then extricate yourself from this room," Snape snapped.

Professor Dumbledore's eyebrows knit together in a severe expression; the twinkle in his eyes was replaced by a hardness that ordinarily would not be seen in the man. "Professor Snape is right, Jane."  
_I see it now,_ Kel realized. _He will sacrifice anything and any_one_ to win this war. It's like the Vietnam War mentality: as long as ten people go out into the jungle and ten come back, it's fine with him. He probably doesn't take into account that the ten who come back are dead inside. _

_People have always assumed that Albus Dumbledore is perfect. _

_And I have found his fault. _

Kel pulled her hood up and strode swiftly away from the gargoyle that marked the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

"Kel? What's—"  
"I'll tell you later."

"Where you going, Khelekkir?" Snape questioned, eyes narrowed as he looked on his antagonist.  
"Seventh floor. Please don't follow." Abruptly, she turned again and pressed forward, long, black robe billowing behind her forebodingly.

Jane looked at the Potions Master almost apologetically then followed after Kel, running to keep up. Nesheni shrugged then did the same.

"Kel!" Jane called. "Kel, slow down! You're walking too fast!"

Kel continued to walk at her current pace, her face set in an angrily determined cast. It may have been a trick of the light, but around her, the air seemed to glimmer faintly.

"Kel!" Gasping, Jane ran up and grabbed Kel's sleeve. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Room of Requirement," she answered stiffly.

"Kel!" Nesheni hissed. "Stop that! That thing you're doing with your mental energy what's-it-called—stop it!"  
At this, Kel broke into a run, bolting past various statues and up the stairs. The air within five feet of her shimmered silver, but instead of looking dreamy and serene, it spit and snapped as the hem of her robes whipped through it.  
Nesheni looked to Jane, molten organs of sight opened slightly more than usual. "What's she doing?"   
Jane stared after her friend, blue eyes wide and skin pale beneath the black eyeliner. "She has to let the energy out," she said, alarmed. "Let's go." Without saying anymore, Jane raced off after her friend, dispelling the popping force left from Kel's departure by running through it. Nesheni followed after her.

Soon, they were gathered in the Room of Requirement. Jane and Nesheni would never forget what they saw.

A crackling blaze of silver occupied the center of the room, tendrils of sizzling hot energy shooting through the room. The air was thick and choking, full of constrained power. At the center of the inferno, an obscured black figure stood dwarfed by the scene around it.

On the more mundane side, a large punching bag hung from the ceiling by a chain on the far side of the room.

"Kel!" Jane shouted. Her voice seemed to disappear into the intense cloud of concentrated silver.  
"Stand back!" Kel's voice sounded from somewhere inside the cloud, seeming somehow strained and thin.   
"Come on!" Nesheni ordered, grabbing Jane's pant leg. "She's about to do something!"

Nesheni was right. As she spoke, half the cloud sped up to a certain point in the air, hanging there in smoldering fury. So densely was the energy packed that it seemed to be almost solid.

With half the cloud displaced, Kel became visible to her friends. Gusts of silver…whatever it was…swirled at her feet. Her dark hair—it had grown long over the months—whipped around her face ferociously. The anger of her surroundings didn't even compare with the emotion showing itself on Kel's face, though. Wrath twisted her features into a frightening vision of rage showing itself through the blazing reddish brown of her eyes.

Jane's attention was diverted from the unnerving scene of her friend's transformed face when she saw what became of the half of the cloud that had moved.

The enormous, uneven orb of silver shot toward Kel's outstretched hand. It seemed that the globe would collide with its wielder, but at the last moment the long fingers of Kel's hand found a hold on the thing; it sat in her grasp, buzzing and sputtering.

"Stand back!" Kel cried again. The burst of dazzling silver-white light left her hand and slammed into the punching bag with a resounding boom. Jane and Nesheni stood to the side; eyes wide in shock as the hanging sack hit the wall with a thud and swung back out. With that first blow, her ire began to flow out of Kel and into her merciless assault on the inanimate object.

"What does he think I am?" Kel shouted. "A scrying glass?" The bag hit the wall with a bang again, a rip starting in its side. The rip grew larger as the bag swung to and fro.

"Yeah, that's probably it," Kel sneered. "The entire wizarding world is just his plaything!"

Boom—the bag hit the wall.

"Pick up this piece—"

Rip—the tear in the bag got bigger, some of the stuffing falling to the floor.

"—send it out to war—"

The damaged sack smacked against the wall.

"Oh! Look! It died! Oh well—here's another one to send! Watch this one go insane!"

An explosion of light zoomed into the punching bag, melting a hole through what was left of it with a serpentine hiss.

The silver storm around her began to die down. Sweat stood out on her face.

"IS THAT IT?" she screamed. Another silver blast rocketed into the punching bag, decimating it, reflecting her defiance. Only the chain remained, swinging tauntingly from the ceiling like a finger wagging in their faces.

"IS THAT IT?"

One last, thin, weary bolt of light, all that was left of the previous whirling cloud, blew the chain from its place on the ceiling. The pieces of linked metal clattered to the floor as Kel sat on a crate they had not seen before and put her head in her hands.

"Is that it?" she whispered, voice cracked.

Silently, she began to weep.

How they got their friend back to her dormitory Jane would never know. Her memory somehow skipped over that part of the journey. All she could recollect was Kel sitting in an overstuffed blue chair in the common room, face pale and sweaty from her outburst.

"Why'd you run away from us like that?" Jane asked her. "You could've told us what you were going to do."  
Kel swallowed a few times, and began in a hoarse voice, "I had no time. I couldn't let Snape see. The jerk told Dumbledore about me being a seer. If he saw this, he'd be running up to the old man before you could say 'secret.'"

A bemused smile crossed her face. "Secret," she said. "Why keep it a secret? That's what they would ask me if they knew. 'Why didn't you tell us? Why couldn't we know?' Then I would remember how they treat Trelawney and how the old man upstairs treated me and I'd answer, 'because you don't realize that seers are people too.'"

"What do you mean?" Nesheni said, puzzled.

Kel laughed, a bark of mirthless, grating sound. "He told me to go on a diet. A diet! To make visions come faster and more often. Well excuse me if I can't call them up whenever _you _feel like having entertainment, Professor Dumbledore! What are you going to do, ship me off to the factory to have me fixed?"

"So you think he's treating you like a machine," Nesheni confirmed.

"Exactly! A machine. A machine with no feelings or thoughts of its own except 'prophecy! Prophecy! Prophecy!'

"I'm not the only one. Look what he said to you, Jane. It's true, you _can't _tell Liam a damn thing, for everyone's own good, but he could have been nicer about it!"

Kel maintained this angry mood for a couple more seconds, and then sighed, letting the anger out and leaning back on her chair. Her hands shook from overexertion. Irritably, she grasped the arms of her chair to make the trembling stop.

"Jane," she rasped, "please go upstairs and get the big leather-bound book from under my spare cloak. It's the one I got from the library this morning after the boys left. I'm afraid I sapped all my energy back there."

"Sure," Jane said quietly. She got up off her seat on the floor and headed for the common room.

So the summer of 1996 began, with a medley of emotion, study, and, at some points, happiness. But all had a dark tone underneath: one foreshadowing undercurrent that could only be felt in the dead of the night, when all but a few were sleeping.

**(A/N**: It's finished. From here on I have no canon to work with until this summer when the sixth book comes out, so for those of you who will read this after Half-Blood Prince is published, just bear it. It's not like I'm going to hold off updating until the next publication.   
On another note, I need ideas for summer. I have to stretch out the summer holidays until June or July this year, I'm not sure which one it is, so if anyone has an idea for a prank or a touching moment, just tell me. And BoCyrs, I put the word 'squee' in here, so be happy and review!

One last thing: Two of my school friends, Kati my editor, Kichikitsune and Annie none other than our favorite nitpicker of all time, Swordsrock, have stories on this site. Kichikitsune has an Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass fic called "Alice, Puppet Mistress." It features an insane Alice out for blood Eek!. Swordsrock has a number of stories, both posted and un-posted. I'm not sure which is up and which isn't, because I see all of them beforehand so I can nitpick them. Please read them!** –Kel Khelekkir) **

**(Editor's note**: I have nothing to say...someone must die! Swordsrock, how 'bout you?


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